Carving the Ice Prince: Reloaded
by ghirahim
Summary: Alternate version of CTIP. College is said to give you the best years of your life; that might be impossible with an older brother doesn't need to be present to terrify others. Trying to help her brother unwind Rukia stumbles upon the seireitei website.
1. Far colder than the typical ice prince

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach nor would I ever even think to say I do. I make no money from writing fanfiction and blah, blah, blah. I also do not own any of the mentioned or referenced manga or video games.

A/N: Alright, where do I begin? I've done it for Hentais, Harems & Heika and now its Carving the Ice Prince's turn ...only this time I'm not changing the title. Editing makes a story better... or worse.

Hopefully I'll be doing the former as this will be the second time I have rewritten this story. Because 'Carving the Ice Prince' is too far along its just better to create an entirely different story than continuously editing the old one. Expect a few similarities within the story but most of it will be different... (another reason why I couldn't just edit the old version).

A/N #2: Uh, I mentioned in the original that they took martial arts so their ranks are dans since they are black-belts meaning instead of stating a third-degree black-belt I will say a sandan or third dan and the like.

A/N #3: 188cm is 6' 2"; 169cm is 5' 6½"

A/N #4: _on 02/07/12 _¥38,392.51 = $500

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><p>"<em>There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother."<br>-Terri Guillemets_

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><p>An eighteen-year-old, weary Kuchiki Rukia trudged down the empty halls of Rukongai University attempting to find her class. The autumn semester began about three weeks ago and since this school was comprised of so many buildings it was relatively easy to get lost. Rukia had no problem asking a student for help ...if all of them weren't avoiding her like the plague. Due to the fact that visibly about 99.99% of the human race feared her brother, forming a conversation with someone new wasn't exactly an easy feat.<p>

The entire Kuchiki clan instilled fear into the hearts of mortals but no Kuchiki had the general public fearing for their life more than Rukia's older brother Byakuya. The nineteen-year-old was revered as an 'ice prince' by many and because everyone was too afraid to get to know him it somehow made him seem colder.

Rukia sighed stopping in front of her supposed classroom. Only in group projects would anyone even attempt to interact with her, senseis didn't even bother calling on her because she was a Kuchiki. It may have only been three weeks but her college life _definitely_ wasn't starting out on the right foot. This was the time the eighteen-year-old was supposed to unwind and party like everyone else in those stereotypical college films but that was proving to be impossible now.

Not that he showed many facial expressions but Byakuya didn't seem to be too pleased about Rukia's enrollment into this school either. With Byakuya's intellect he could have attended any college in Japan; hell, any college in the world would be happy to get him. The only reason Rukia could think of was that Byakuya didn't want to work harder than necessary. Those high-maintenance schools usually overworked their students and had abysmal results, so doing well in a school that wasn't overly prestigious but still well recommended was better.

Due to Byakuya's ...more rebellious faze in his early teens the siblings attended different high schools. Their grandfather, Ginrei, quickly straightened the then fifteen-year-old out after a few thousand punishments.

Rukia was certain Byakuya's rebellious side was still around because it did have a tendency to slip out frequently. "Kuchiki-chan~!" Rukia slowly turned to her left where the burnt-orange haired girl stood smiling. "Hi. You have this class too now, right?" Before the shorter teen could reply she was being dragged to the front row in the lecture hall. Inoue Orihime was one of those overly friendly girls who pulled you out of whatever you were doing to join the conversation. Rukia didn't necessary dislike people like that but Orihime's boundless energy was a bit tiring and her endowment was incredibly disheartening.

"Do you want to have lunch with me today Kuchiki-chan?"

"Just Rukia is fine Orihime-chan."

Orihime twitched slightly, "a-are you sure?" Suppressing the urge to sigh outwardly the black-haired teen nodded. Everyone was terrified of Byakuya and he only transferred three weeks ago – imagine how truly terrified they would be if he attended in the spring, or even last year!

In an attempt to get on the nineteen-year-old's good side (assuming he had one) the students of Rukongai democratically elected him the president of the student government and, perhaps, to be 'fair' made another second year their vice president. The whole thing was presumably a glorified popularity contest because under normal circumstances third and fourth years wouldn't be all that willing to take orders from their kōhai; now despite Byakuya's stoic demeanor he was admired from far – hence the whole 'ice prince' persona he was dubbed with. Regardless of the reason refusing such an 'honorable' position wasn't exactly something a Kuchiki could do so Byakuya begrudgingly accepted.

_Speaking of Byakuya,_ Rukia saw her brother walk down the hall with the pink-haired vice president and his blond twin brother. Students of all grades silently stood against the locker lined walls allowing the trio to walk down the hall not even daring to glance in the their general direction.

Rukia wasn't certain if the bespectacled pink-haired teen was afraid of her brother like the others as he was the only one willing to be vice president and he didn't stutter or flinch when talking to Byakuya. Not to mention they were walking side-by-side.

Rukia propped her chin against her palm looking out the door. "Rukia-chan?" Purple eyes widened before turning to Orihime. "So, um, did you want to ...eat lunch together?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry Orihime-chan but I have to go home and help with the tea school."

"Ooh, that kind of sounds like fun."

Rukia sighed, "its not but if you want to check it out—"

"I'd love to!" She clamped her hands over mouth then nodded. Rukia chuckled, while most of the time the energy was a little off-putting it had a bit of cuteness to it as well.

"But I have to stop off at home first."

Orihime slowly removed her hands from her mouth, "I-I can come over to your house?" Rukia nodded. "O-Okay." Orihime nodded. "Right. I mean, your house _is_ where you live..."

"Aniki won't be there he's probably working on the cultural festival." Orihime sighed in relief and Rukia couldn't help but chuckle again.

It was approximately fifty-two minutes later when their history class ended. Rukia didn't exactly have a predetermined major as her priority for college was to unwind so they just stuck her with the prerequisite classes that were mandatory for all students. Rukia glanced to the right where Orihime was walking beside her.

Out of the corner of her eye Rukia noticed that Orihime became more and more tense with each passing minute in class. Apparently the mere thought of being in the Kuchiki home was incredibly unsettling to the girl, Rukia tried to talk her out of it but curiosity clearly won out over intense fear.

"I'm home." Rukia announced walking into the house.

"S-Sorry for disturbing..." Orihime stated toeing her shoes off. The Kuchiki household was exactly how one would expect it to be. It was immaculate but not boring or plain, Orihime couldn't even begin to describe the elegance the house exuded.

"Rukia?" The burnt-orange haired girl flinched. "Oh..." Orihime stared in awe at the man standing in front of them. He looked like Byakuya only his face had a more mature aspect so one might assume he would be the father of the Kuchiki siblings. "And who might this be? I am Kuchiki Sōjun." He bowed.

"I-I'm Inoue Orihime." She replied bowing as well. "I'm sorry for disturbing."

"Not at all. You're the first friend any of my children have brought home in a long time."

Orihime seemed to have paled at that comment and as Rukia sensed it she grabbed the taller teen's arm. "We'll be upstairs in my room." Sōjun nodded as the two girls disappeared up the stairs.

Sighing, Rukia dropped her backpack onto the bed then gracelessly flopped down beside it. She looked up at Orihime nervously standing at the doorway then beckoned the taller girl over. Orihime softly plopped down beside Rukia twiddling her thumbs.

As the siblings were still legally minors they lived in the house with their father and grandfather; it was a two-story house the siblings had the upstairs while the adults took the ground floor. The house might have lacked the necessary privacy that two teenagers often require but both guardians were rarely home, with the tea school and various other things, fully entrusting Byakuya to care for the entire household in their absence.

Orihime was the first 'friend' Rukia invited over to her house post-rebellious Byakuya which – if her math was correct – meant close to five years ago. Though she never slept away from her own home because everyone was too terrified of her brother _pre_-rebellious Byakuya, but the two fears were not one in the same.

Rukia sat up suddenly startling her guest. She had to do something about her brother's menacing aura before it became embedded in the student body of Rukongai. They only feared him from the horrible rumors but spending more time with him was bound to increase the fear to mammoth proportions!

"Rukia-chan?" Violet eyes glanced at brown, "your computer light is blinking..."

The black-haired teen turned to said item, the power button was indeed blinking repeatedly in an annoying fashion. Resting the urge to facepalm, Rukia walked over to the desk sitting in the chair. In her haste to get to school she forgot to take the damn thing off but fortunately it was in power save mode so it hibernated automatically.

Her grandfather wouldn't hesitate to tear her a new one for wasting electricity. Violet eyes narrowed at the blinking mail icon at the top left corner of her monitor. She was tempted to open it without hesitation but it dawned on her that she wasn't being a very good host and Orihime was far too polite to comment on it. Without warning Rukia spun around in her swivel chair, "did you want something to eat or drink?" Orihime shook her head almost violently. Okay, so much for trying to be a good host. "Uh, if you want you can sit in the chair beside me." Rukia pulled out the stool under the computer desk and sat on it then Orihime hesitantly sat in the offered chair thanking the shorter teen.

Rukia nodded then returned to the task of starting the internet and opening her e-mail which comprised of about ninety percent of pure bullshit junk-mail and the rest was divided between party invites she obviously couldn't attend, sweepstakes offers she clearly wasn't going to win and match-up websites she had no interest in. One would need a social life to begin dating and with a brother like Byakuya a social life was nothing more than wishful thinking.

Even if she decided to set Byakuya up with someone it would take some ballsy, masochistic son of a bitch to take the verbal (or physical – depending on Byakuya's mood) abuse her brother could _and would _dish out with relative ease.

The formerly silent teen beside her made a weird noise that was a cross between a squeak and a groan, but either way Rukia turned to her. "Oh...s-sorry." She held up her cellphone, "I was just looking at this website Hinamori-chan forwarded to me."

Rukia stared at the cellphone in the grasp of perfectly manicured hands. "Seireitei?"

"Uh, I'll put it on your computer ...if you don't mind." Rukia shook her head allowing Orihime to type in the web address onto the computer.

As soon as the main page loaded Rukia's jaw dropped. The page was littered with several attractive men most half-clothed and a few fully-clothed; in the middle of the page stood the supposed description of the website: '_Seireitei dot org is a fantasy satisfaction guarantee organization... our employees are a cross between hosts and adult phone entertainers of all shapes, sizes and voices to cater to your needs no matter how sexual or emotional; even the most socially inept people will have a good time with one of our employees at a reasonable price of course~'_

Underneath the description was the bio of the website's creator, Kyōraku Shunsui, and his reasons for creating a website like this. Under _that_ was the biggest picture on the main page, a picture of their 'employee of the month.' The picture featured a topless blue-haired guy with a broad, mischievously seductive grin etched onto his incredibly attractive face.

Next to his picture was his bio of sorts. Jaegerjaquez Grimmjow was an eighteen-year-old Leo born on July 31st currently employed in the Hueco Mundo Dojo in the Saitama Prefecture; his favorite color was electric blue which appeared to be the color of his hair. His hobbies included...

Rukia shook her head, immediately putting the website on her favorites list. If her father was home she was certain he would call her before they were leaving for the tea school as he often did so she had a few more minutes at most to bullshit around on this website.

Once again forgetting her guest, Rukia glanced at Orihime whose eyes seemed to be glued to the blue-haired teen. Blinking, Orihime shook out of her stupor blushing slightly. "S-Sorry about that." Both girls looked down at the FAQ section located at the bottom left corner of the page when one particular question caught both of their eyes: _'Q – Why aren't there any females working for seireitei? A – Not to be sexist or anything but no one usually asks for them. When I first created seireitei in August I used to have a couple of female employees but they were rarely called, if they were called at all, and so they eventually got tired of being ignored and upstaged by their male counterparts that they just left. Apparently most of my clientele are men seeking men ...if you catch my drift; not to say that I don't have a generous amount of females looking for male companionship but at least eighty percent of my customers here are male. But if you are searching for women don't fret we are working on a sister website – no pun intended – that will be up and running as soon as we get enough volunteers.'_

Rukia and Orihime exchanged glances. There were a considerable amount of websites dedicated to female phone sex operators so if someone wanted that it wouldn't be too hard, but hostesses were particularly rare nowadays outside of the red light districts that Shinjuku was known for.

"Um, Rukia-chan? D-Do you think we can look at Jaegerjaquez-san's page?" Rukia stared at the girl squirming in her seat for a few seconds before nodding. From the link on the main page the two girls found themselves staring at a bunch of pictures starring the blue-haired teen.

Grimmjow was eighteen and born in July making him six months younger than Rukia which made him exactly a year-and-a-half younger than Byakuya who was also born in January. Rukia was sure Byakuya wouldn't mind hanging out with a younger guy, the vice president was a few months younger than he was but these were two different definitions of the term 'hanging out.'

According to the biography, Grimmjow was almost a bit too ...insane to be her brother's companion even if Byakuya was still in his rebellious faze. The siblings might have shared similar interests in terms of attractiveness but if getting suspended numerous times throughout his three years of high school for fights that he, oddly enough, did not start wasn't enough, getting arrested for fighting or perhaps the misdemeanors from public indecency to vandalism were definitely enough to deter progress. To put it in layman's terms their personalities would clash and not in the best of ways.

Rukia frowned. She figured if someone on this website could get the old Byakuya back or at least get him to be a fraction of the old Byakuya then she would willingly spend her entire life savings on it!

With a money back guarantee Rukia had nothing to lose. She nodded to herself then froze spotting the grinning redhead in one of Grimmjow's pictures. Byakuya may not have had a 'type' per se but she did see him ogling tattoos on occasion and this guy was covered in them! He also had long hair which was something else Byakuya seemed to secretly have a penchant for.

"Orihime-chan?" The teen in question jumped, "do you mind if I go to another page?" Orihime nervously shook her head and Rukia clicked on one of the links from Grimmjow's page.

It might not have been the page she wanted but she wasn't disappointed at all. The page she was on was that of Ayasegawa Yumichika; according to _his_ bio he was Grimmjow's roommate but unlike Grimmjow's bio there was no written criminal record detailed. Rukia frowned, Yumichika was positively beautiful – maybe even too beautiful for a man – and for that reason he and Byakuya might not be suited to hang out. She might be doing this for Byakuya's benefit but there was no reason why she couldn't talk to one of these guys herself so she'd hook Byakuya up with someone else and talk to Yumichika herself.

Moving on, she clicked on the link on Yumichika's page taking her to another page which, also, wasn't the one she wanted. A brunet with a blatantly disinterested face was next; his wavy hair was pulled into a ponytail and he was about to eat a dripping ice pop, or judging by how red his lips were he was in the middle of eating it. Rukia gulped, she didn't find ice pops particularly interesting or tasty but she never truly longed to be one until seeing this picture. Beside her, Rukia saw Orihime swallow thickly ...apparently her thoughts were going in a similar direction.

Sighing inwardly, Rukia clicked on the link on the brunet's page and did a mental cheer. The redhead's main picture may not have been as ...appealing as the others but there was something adorable about him stuffing his face with taiyaki.

"Rukia!"

"Damn... I-I'll be right there tōsan!" Getting up from the stool, the black-haired teen quickly skimmed the redhead's bio in search of his name. Above his picture was the name _Abarai Renji_. Rukia nodded to herself making a mental note before taking off the computer. "Come on Orihime-chan, its time to go to the tea school."

Orihime stood saluting. "Aye aye."

— — — —

Fear. That was the only word to describe the situation at the moment. Nineteen-year-old Kuchiki Byakuya removed his reading glasses and scanned the room full of scared subordinates daring not to glance in his general direction.

The student government of Rukongai University was composed of about fifteen people and that didn't include the people who were also members of the public morals committee which normally doubled up with the student government during school wide events and the like. Such as the cultural festival they were getting ready for.

Byakuya sighed putting his glasses back on scanning the clipboard in front of him, this whole situation reminded him of junior high school – although he would be the one the student government would blacklist and have their eye on instead of being an actual member.

Byakuya normally didn't get close to others but it was no secret that those that knew of him from his junior high years (i.e. ages twelve to fifteen) were aware of his less than ...admirable lifestyle of delinquency and rebellion. With every act of defiance his grandfather would give him the appropriate punishment which only made Byakuya want to rebel further. The straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, was Byakuya's expulsion from school due to his fighting – he might have been fighting for Rukia's sake but Kuchiki's couldn't engage in such behavior and as calm as ever Ginrei practically injured his grandson within an inch of his life.

Byakuya wouldn't say he was afraid of his grandfather but he definitely gained a whole new outlook on the old man after that. People said _he_ was terrifying but those people never interacted with Kuchiki Ginrei.

"K-Kuchiki-senpai?" Gray eyes glanced over at the nervous looking, slightly shaking black-haired teen holding up a clipboard. "A-All the p-p-preparations for the c-cultural f-festival are c-complete..."

Byakuya stared at her noticing how the members around the table didn't even bother breathing. Before he could reply the door to the student government room suddenly opened. "Yo!" Though no sounds were heard it was certain the student government members let out a collective mental sigh of relief at the intrusion. The blond walked over to the table leaning on a chair. "Is Szayel in here?" Everyone looked around the room noticing for the first time that the seat next to Byakuya's was indeed empty. "Apparently not."

Hurried footsteps silenced the room once again and a panting, pink-haired bespectacled teen ran into the room through the already opened door placing his hands on his knees once he made it to the table. "I'm so out of shape... _oh_!" Amber eyes narrowed at his twin before he wordlessly grabbed the blond dragging him to an unoccupied corner of the room.

The undivided attention of the student government was on the twins but as they were a good distance away no one could actually hear what they were saying, but that didn't matter anything that kept their attention off of the student government president was welcomed with open arms. After a few minutes the blond bid adieu to his twin then disappeared. Sighing, the pink-haired teen walked back over to the table taking his seat beside Byakuya. The other members silently thanked the bespectacled teen for being the buffer for all the tension in the room.

"So... what did I miss?" Byakuya silently slid the clipboard he was reading over to his vice president who quickly skimmed it. "What the fuck—?"

"G-Granz-senpai?" Amber eyes locked onto the same black-haired teen who flinched apparently too used to getting that look from Byakuya and was merely acting on reflex.

Byakuya sighed as the clipboard was handed back over to him, "this isn't going anywhere." The pink-haired teen replied tapping his finger against the desk. "Are there any questions or concerns?"

The entire room stiffened and both the president and vice president sighed simultaneously. Byakuya shook his head taking his glasses off again. The nineteen-year-old couldn't even attempt to form a decent conversation with any of these idiots because they were too busy either openly gawking at him to actually listen or they were scared shitless and visibly shaking in their seats. So far since the three weeks he was enrolled here nineteen-year-old Granz Szayel seemed to be the only individual capable of holding a conversation with him and the pink-haired teen was quite tolerable not to mention he was rather intelligent so that was a plus.

The nineteen-year-old's exchanged glances and Byakuya nodded. As the members continued to pay incredibly close attention to whatever the hell was in front of them they decided this meeting clearly was nothing more than a complete waste of time. Byakuya had to admit just he and Szayel could probably have the cultural festival up and running without the help of the members.

Contrary to popular belief, even pre-rebellion, Byakuya wasn't a patient man and all this fidgeting was being to grate on his nerves. The black-haired teen pinched the bridge of his nose, "if there are no concerns the meeting is adjourned." No sooner had the words left his lips the room cleared out safe for himself and the vice president.

Szayel leaned back in his seat placing his feet on the table top picking up one of the fallen clipboards. "Pie throwing station, kissing booth, goldfish scoop, fortune telling, a _maid cafe_? Is this a cultural festival or a carnival? Why not just add a dunk tank?" The pink-haired teen flipped through more pages before setting the clipboard down. "So, Kuchiki-kun, are you going to operate the kissing booth? I heard it was sorta mandatory for the students government and public moral committee members but as the president you could easily override that. Though, I'm sure hundreds of people will eagerly line up if you're there and it is for a good cause~"

Byakuya stared at him shrugging. Szayel may be tolerable and intelligent but it didn't make him any less of a sadist. Whenever there was an opportunity to spread organized chaos, or just _regular_ chaos, throughout the school the pink-haired teen was more than willing to lend a hand. As much as he didn't want to admit it, schoolmates were less than subtle about their attraction to him. One more than one occasion he saw students walk into walls because they were ogling him and not paying attention to their surroundings. Too terrified to approach him they admired him for a far so getting the opportunity to kiss him without getting hit would be a dream come true. "Don't you have a boyfriend?"

It was Szayel's turn to shrug. Byakuya frequently saw the pink-haired teen ducking out of hallways with his clothes rumpled and countless hickeys on his neck, chest, shoulders and sometimes on his arms not to mention he was normally in the company of an absurdly tall black-haired teen who happened to have mirrored love bites along with similar states of dress or in some cases undress. "Its not like I'm cheating, besides he'll be there too."

"Don't sneak off to make out with him."

Chuckling, Szayel plopped his feet down to the ground. "Ah, you know me all too well... I'll make sure our shifts are over before we sneak out."

Gathering up the rest of the clipboards, the two teens exited the room. "Oi Kuchiki-kun." Byakuya paused looking over his shoulder at the pink-haired teen at the opposite end of the hall, "lets make sure this cultural festival is memorable, ne?"

— — — —

As the alarm loudly went off, a tan hand shot out from under the warm confines of the blankets then aimlessly felt around the tatami mat until finding an alarm clock. Once the clock was gripped by the hand it was thrown against the wall smashed into hundreds of tiny pieces.

"What the fuck Renji!" Was the screech the half-dormant teen heard. "You almost hit me with that stupid thing!" After hearing the all too familiar huff followed by a pair of familiar footsteps padding across the tatami mat Renji gripped his sheets as the black-haired teen pulled on them. "Stop struggling!"

"Yo!" The black-haired teen glared at the doorway where Grimmjow's grinning face popped up. "Looks like you could use some help Yumichika~"

Yumichika huffed flipping the blue-haired teen off before fruitlessly tugging at the sheets. Prior to coming into this room Yumichika and Grimmjow had made a wager of sorts; since Grimmjow was the only one able to awaken Renji from his slumber and walk away fine after the punches the redhead unleashed afterwords he was usually assigned the task of waking Renji up. Somewhat of a betting man, Yumichika figured he would be able to wake up Renji without injury and so the bet began.

Hearing another pair of footsteps Yumichika glared at their other roommate standing in the left side of the doorway while Grimmjow still stood in the right side. "Is there something I can help you with Starrk?" The brunet shook his head allowing Yumichika to return to his previous task. "Don't you have to go to work or something? I'm sure I heard Barren? Bargain?"

"Baraggan?" Starrk asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I thought I heard his voice on the answering machine when I was looking through your phone." The black-haired teen huffed when he got no response.

"Try tickling him." Grimmjow offered grinning.

"Shut the hell up, I told you I can do this without your help!" The blue-haired teen shrugged tapping the slightly taller teen on the shoulder before they departed. Renji wasn't ticklish so that blue-haired idiot was just setting him up for failure but Yumichika was far too smart to be fooled so easily.

Yumichika cracked his knuckles, if he wouldn't respond to reason then force was required. Renji might be stronger being a sandan but Yumichika wasn't too far off being a nidan. The eighteen-year-old balled up his fists preparing to strike when his cellphone started vibrating in his pocket. Sighing, he fished it out of his pocket with his left hand looking at the text briefly before putting it back into the pocket.

If their instructor at the Hueco Mundo taught them anything it was that it was an excellent strategy to use your opponents force against them especially if they were bigger and Renji standing in (or laying down) at 188cm compared to Yumichika's 169cm was _definitely_ bigger.

Scowling, Yumichika looked down at the redhead. Renji was suspected to have low blood pressure in the morning because unless— Yumichika's eyes widened. Courtesy of Grimmjow's perverted nature, Renji had become predisposed to waking up with touch rather than anything else and it wasn't just any sort of touch that had the redhead lunging at the idiot.

Yumichika tapped his chin, he wouldn't mind groping Renji and he was faster than Grimmjow so he might be able to get away with it which would make him the winner of the bet.

Grinning, Yumichika dropped the sheet he was still holding then knelt down crawling over to where Renji's head was. With the grin still plastered on his face he reached a sliver of red hair and carefully pulled the sheet down freezing when a pair of chocolate eyes were narrowed at him.

Yumichika's grin broadened then he crawled under the covers snuggling against the redhead. One of the beauties about sleeping on futon was the easy access.

Suddenly the sheets were pulled from the futon and Grimmjow and Starrk both stood above the two teens shaking their heads. "And _what_... exactly is going on?" The blue-haired teen asked. Not waiting for a response he continued, "beansprout's at the door. I offered him to come inside but he declined and I think Starrk scared him off."

The brunet in question shrugged nonchalantly, "how was I to know he would be so cute? I've never actually met the kid before."

Facepalming, Yumichika then extended his arms allowing the two idiots to help him up each grabbing one of his arms pulling him up. Shooting a dirty look at both of them he walked out of the room.

Yumichika opened the front door of their apartment and true to form the smaller black-haired teen was standing in the hallway. "H-Hi Ayasegawa-kun." Yumichika stared blankly at him and he gulped. "I-I meant Yumichika-kun."

Smiling, Yumichika pulled the shorter teen into the apartment walking to his bedroom. The shorter teen looked around said room in awe; much like Yumichika the room was incredibly elegant and a bit flashy.

Seireitei was created three months ago and his current guest had only been employed for a month and made drastic changes to the website for the better including the employee of the month bit which did little to inflate Grimmjow's already enormous ego. Yamada Hanatarō was both an employee of seireitei, despite the absence of his own page, and a student of Rukongai University in Tokyo. Rukongai was just a simple train ride away from the city of Saitama where they were residing in.

For the past month Yumichika used every sort of method possible to try and get the shorter teen to visit him: blackmail, threats, he even resorted to begging of all things and none of those things worked! The only other thing he could use was seireitei because Hanatarō was the one in charge of the website's layout and the like as well as dozens of other menial secretary-esque tasks.

But that was just a flimsy pretense to get him to come over though Kyōraku did ask him to convince Hanatarō to create his own page because customers were asking about him through Yumichika and another employee's pictures so it was one of those kill two birds with one stone situations.

Speaking of other employees of his three housemates who all worked at seireitei with him, the only one who attended Rukongai with him was Starrk but he was a year older than the rest of them so it was nice to have a classmate to hang out with outside of school while talking about school related things. Grimmjow somehow got himself expelled from Rukongai before getting officially enrolled as for Renji... Yumichika truly had no idea why he wasn't a student other than the very likely reason that he just didn't want to – because the redhead was a hell of a lot smarter than one would think.

Despite not being students of Rukongai, Grimmjow and Renji frequented the school to 'check up' on Yumichika which generally meant they were there to annoy him. Yumichika secretly hoped the dean would file a restraining order or something against them but no such luck so far.

In addition to working at seireitei both Grimmjow and Renji were assistant senseis at the Hueco Mundo Dojo which was the same dojo they were taught martial arts from many, _many _moons ago; Renji was also employed at the Las Noches convenience store and Starrk worked at a bookstore called Inuzuri.

Hanatarō continued to look around the room watching the taller teen shuffle around haphazardly until he found what he was looking for. Once retrieved, Yumichika placed his laptop on the bed in front of Hanatarō then laid on the bed beside it.

Blue eyes narrowed at the screen, it might have been Yumichika's page but one might not know when there were so many pictures of him on it and it didn't even look like this earlier today. Sighing he glanced at the taller teen sprawled out on the bed, "Kyōraku-san told you to convince me to get my own page." It wasn't a question and Yumichika knew it. Gulping, he nodded he _would_ have lied about it but Hanatarō was just so damn cute when he was upset.

The brunet expressed it in great detail that he wanted Hanatarō to have his own page but he also stated that he would not force him to; but if one read between the lines Kyōraku never said he wouldn't force someone else to make Hanatarō have a page. Hanatarō sighed frowning.

"Come on." Yumichika tugged on his sleeve, "what's the harm in having a page anyway? I mean, you're already adorable so you'll get tons of customers ...maybe not as many as Grimmjow but you'll definitely be really popular. If you'd like, I could even design it for you."

Hanatarō squirmed on the bed. He wasn't anywhere near as bold as the other employees of seireitei to have any sort of sexual contact with a stranger whether it was publicly or privately. He once attempted to have phone sex in his apartment with his roommate and needless to say it ended in catastrophic failure.

"Knock, knock." Both teens glanced up at the doorway at the newcomer. Like Starrk, Hanatarō and Yumichika, Hisagi Shūhei was both a student of Rukongai and an employee of seireitei residing in Saitama. "What's going on in here?"

"Can you convince Hanatarō-kun that he should get himself a seireitei page?"

Shūhei pointed to himself before shaking his head waving his arms defensively. "You're barking up the wrong tree Chi, I'm not good at convincing anything." Rolling his eyes, Yumichika dismissed him then sat up.

"Fu—_uh_, crap! We gotta go to school now." The vibrating of his cellphone made Yumichika flinch then fish it out of his pocket once gain, he glared at the screen then perked up immediately recognizing the number. "Moshi moshi?"

Hanatarō watched in awe as the taller, albeit younger, teen giddily chatted away on the phone like he was talking to an old friend. That wasn't really surprising given Yumichika's personality – the taller teen was a very friendly individual, the true surprise was that someone was beautiful as Yumichika would even bother befriending someone as plain as Hanatarō was especially when one took into account the friends Yumichika normally surrounded himself with.

Sighing heavily, Yumichika hung up the phone then stared at Hanatarō questionably. "Oh... nothing. I was just thinking that you sound excited hearing from this guy."

"What? I-I do not!" Hanatarō blinked at him. The taller teen was blushing slightly folding his arms over his chest.

Starrk whistled as his, Shūhei and Grimmjow's heads popped up in the doorway. "You're looking like a boiled octopus right now Yumi." The blue-haired teen teased.

At that comment Yumichika's blush uncharacteristically seemed to deepen. "Ah." Starrk began nodding, "he must have just finished talking to his mystery client." The other two nodded in agreement.

Despite seireitei's confidentiality clause, the teens shared some of the conversations they had with clients amongst themselves but to ensure their asses don't get sued, or worse fired, they maintained a level of discretion omitting their clients names whenever they spoke about them. So this guy Yumichika was incredibly enamored by was referred to as the 'mystery client' or more frequently 'Yumi's vocal wet dream.'

Seireitei dot org had three ways of client-customer interaction: the most popular which is the phone, webcam/videophone which allows clients to meet with the employees without being close to them and finally the boldest of all the face-to-face which was exactly what it appeared to be. Kyōraku intended on having a texting option but Hanatarō talked him out of it because contrary to popular belief not everyone texted twenty-four hours a day which meant not everyone was up on the text-speak.

Yumichika's mystery client was a phone only client. Obviously, clients had the option of which method they preferred as well as how often they intended on interacting with the employee they purchased. As it was the most popular most customers stuck with solely phone but there were a few delved into a phone and videophone fusion and even fewer that tried a phone and face-to-face method or a videophone and face-to-face option.

Still huffing, Yumichika turned to the trio in the doorway grinning at him. If Renji were there it would be an idiot foursome. "Why are you all staring at me?"

"Oh, no reason..." Shūhei began. "We just think its cute how excited you get talking to your client."

"What? I-I'm not excited! Damn, is it so unbelievable to find enjoyment in one's job?"

"Enjoyment?" Starrk elbowed a nodding Grimmjow, "so Yumi... on a scale from one to ten how 'enjoyable' would you say your job is? I mean, how hot and bothered is it getting you talking dirty to this guy? I mean, I'm sure we've all got hot talking to some our clients so—"

"Not that this should be any of your business, you pervs, but I don't talk dirty—"

"How are you supposed to—" Both Starrk and Shūhei covered Grimmjow's mouth.

"As I was saying. I don't have phone sex with this guy."

The three teens exchanged glances then Grimmjow's mouth was released so he could ask the question they were all thinking. "Then what the hell are you talking to this guy for?"

"It is not a requirement to have phone sex with your clients Grimmjow! In addition to getting 'hot and bothered' talking to some of them I'm sure you've all had dozens of clients that just wanted to shoot the breeze with you."

Starrk shrugged, "duh. We've all had a few stragglers but none of them repeatedly made masochistic calls to phone sex operators." Shūhei and Grimmjow nodded in agreement.

Grimmjow shook his head, "I'm sure Yumi's giving that guy the worst case of blue-balls imaginable... or he's getting off just having casual chats."

Yumichika was about to respond but paused. It _was_ possible – Yumichika wasn't the type to get off on dirty talk even when he was having phone sex so his client might have had the same preference and getting turned on by a voice wasn't unheard of. That was the whole purpose of phone sex after all.

"Hey." Everyone turned to Renji standing a good distance away from the doorway scratching his head. "Don't you guys have to catch the train to get to school?" After yawning, he walked off.

"Renji~" Grimmjow cooed walking after the redhead.

"Well we'd better go before we have to ride that overcrowded train again." Still blushing slightly, Yumichika grabbed Hanatarō's arm pulling up out of the room. Shrugging to one another, Starrk and Shūhei followed suit.

"Grimmjow?" The blue-haired teen, on his seireitei phone, gave the group the two-fingered salute as they left the apartment. Sighing, Grimmjow hung up a few minutes later shoving his phone into his pants pocket. Most of the time having a job like this was great but the so-called stragglers that just wanted to talk about the weather or other uninteresting things were just a total bore, especially when the boring clients didn't have attractive voices. At least with an attractive voice you can tune out what they were saying but still listen to the voice in question.

The blue-haired teen glanced at the kitchen counter where Renji was seated with his head face first against the counter top. Grimmjow had to admit the redhead's sluggish morning temperament was quite adorable. "Renji~" Grinning, he pounced on the slightly taller teen nuzzling his face against the unruly crimson mane.

Grimmjow sighed breathing in the spicy, cinnamon mixture of Renji's hair. Like always, the unmistakable scent was extremely calming and that was exactly what Grimmjow needed after that stupid phone conversation.

The redhead's disgruntled face rose from the counter to glare at Grimmjow. "Lets go harass Yumi at school before we head to work."

Shrugging, Renji pulled himself off of the counter. "Why not."

— — — —

Stumbling into his dorm, eighteen-year-old Kurosaki Ichigo toed off his shoes then unceremoniously dropped his backpack onto the ground before shuffling into the living room dropping down onto the couch face first.

"Whoa, what's up?" The orange-haired teen glanced to his left at his roommate's best friend staring at him. "You don't look so good Ichi, are you sick? Wanna warm up under the kotatsu with me?"

"No." Ichigo replied burying his face into the couch.

"Ichigo!" The front door burst in and a black-haired teen kicked her shoes off before running to the couch. "Is it true? Did Ishida really just dump you?"

The brunet in front of the couch gasped. "Are you serious? They've been dating for, what, six years?"

"Seven." The black-haired teen corrected. "Dammit Ichigo, come on." She urged shaking him, "you can't be _this _depressed about it. You two do this sort of thing all the time, don't you?"

"No Tatsuki-kun, they 'separate' briefly." The brunet held up his fingers air-quoting the word separate. "They never broke up and that includes that year Ichi's dad made them stop seeing one another out of school."

Ichigo slowly turned to them, "I would appreciate you two **not **talking about my personal life in front of me."

"No can do." Tatsuki replied folding her arms over her chest, "stop being a little bitch over this; Ishida wasn't exactly the best boyfriend around in case you were too busy fucking him to notice." The brunet facepalmed. Tatsuki meant well but she wasn't exactly known for her empathy. Arisawa Tatsuki had been close friends with Ichigo since their elementary school days; in fact, Tatsuki was just about the only girl Ichigo felt comfortable around... aside from his own little sisters.

A student-teacher had stripped in front of Ichigo scarring him for life making the poor guy not be able to handle modestly covered females in close proximity. It might have had something to do with Tatsuki being viewed as one of the guys but Ichigo did have a tendency to squirm when she undressed around him.

"Don't you remember valentine's day three years ago? You went through all that shit to get him a present and that ungrateful son of a—" Sighing, the brunet covered Tatsuki's mouth.

"I guess what Tatsuki-kun is trying to say is that there are plenty of other birds in the air, or fish in the sea... whatever the metaphor is. You deserve better than Ishida." Ichigo merely stared at him with a blank expression. "Say, you know what might cheer you up? There was this website Ikkaku told me about called seireitei, its got a lot of hot guys to ogle." The brunet waggled his eyebrows suggestively and Ichigo sighed.

Like Tatsuki, Asano Keigo was a member of their close-knit group of friends. Keigo and Ichigo met in their first year of high school through Keigo's best friend, Madarame Ikkaku. Ikkaku was a member of the kendo club that was crazy about recruiting members with potential. Ichigo showed a great deal of skill with a sword so Ikkaku relentlessly hounded him to join claiming he'll only stop if he was defeated by the redhead or if Ichigo joined.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Ichigo and Ikkaku fought. As the match ended in a draw Ikkaku continued to pursue him until Ichigo finally caved. After that the two became friends and as Keigo was also a member of the kendo club he became friends with Ichigo too.

"I'll call him for you."

"What do you need to call him for? Just go on the website." Shaking her head, Tatsuki retrieved abandoned Ichigo's laptop from his bedroom depositing it on the table with the kotatsu that she and Keigo sat under. "Its so warm."

"I know, right?" Clearing his throat, Keigo pulled up the seireitei website. "I wanted to call Ikkaku so he could show us which one he's talking to."

Tatsuki whistled, "he's talking to one of these guys? Ikkaku? _Madarame Ikkaku_?" Keigo nodded. "Then call him. I need to see this. Better yet, tell him to come over so he can show us himself otherwise I just won't believe it."

The brunet nodded taking out his cellphone. "Moshi moshi? Yeah, um, where are you? No, do you think you can come over there's something we wanna show Ichigo. Okay." Grinning, Keigo hung up giving the black-haired teen a thumbs up.

A few minutes later a bald teen entered his and Ichigo's dorm seeing Keigo, Tatsuki, Chizuru and Chad comfortably sitting at the kotatsu. "What the—? Why are you all here? You ungrateful bastards can't just occupy my dorm whenever the hell you want."

"Aww, come on Ikka-chan, don't be like that." Keigo exclaimed extending his arms toward the teen. "How's about you squeeze under here with me?"

A vein throbbed on Ikkaku's forehead. "How's about you shut the hell up?" Keigo whimpered shrinking back. "Now, what did you call me for?"

"We didn't tell you?" Ikkaku stared at Tatsuki shaking his head. "Oh. Well you gotta show us the guy from seireitei you're talking to."

Eyes widening, Ikkaku stomped over to Keigo gripping him by the collar pulling him to eye level. "What the fuck man, I _thought_ I told you not to tell them about that! And you invited the whole damn group?"

"I swear I..." A black-haired teen walked out of the bathroom rubbing the back of his neck, "don't tell me I already missed the unveiling?"

Facepalming, Ikkaku dropped Keigo. "You brought Kojima here too? You had better have a damn good—"

"D-Don't hurt me! Ichi was just dumped and he's really down so I thought the website might cheer him up. Please don't kill me!"

"Wait a minute, four-eyes dumped Ichigo? When?" The group shrugged, "well damn that must suck..." Ikkaku sighed, "alright fine. But its only because he's my roommate and I'm the one that has to deal with his sulking." Grunting, he knelt down sliding under the kotatsu beside Keigo who was manning the laptop. "Get your ass over here Ichigo." He glanced at Keigo who flinched, "you fucking owe me big time for this."

Ichigo slid off the couch and crawled over to the kotatsu sitting beside his own best friend leaning on the brunet's broad shoulders. Sado Yasutora or Chad as everyone called him had been Ichigo's best friend for about seven years or so; he might have known Tatsuki longer but he and Chad were a lot closer. It was in middle school when the two of them met and became best friends. But most importantly, the brunet was the main reason why Ichigo hadn't strangled Tatsuki or Keigo yet for informing _everyone_ of his break-up. Chad usually served as Ichigo's calming voice of reason and the neutral pacifier in the group.

Still grunting and grumbling, Ikkaku pulled up the page froze momentarily then turned the laptop around to the others. After a few seconds of awkward silent Ichigo burst out laughing. _That_ definitely made him feel a bit better. "A-Are you fucking kidding me?" He asked laughing, "h-he... he's _way_ too pretty for you."

"Pretty?" Keigo leaned over the table looking at the black-haired teen on the screen, "oh shit! I-Is that even a guy?"

"Of course its a guy, idiot." Tatsuki replied slapping Keigo on the forehead. "They're all guys." Huffing, Tatsuki shook her head. "Still... I gotta agree with Ichigo he's really, really pretty."

"You know..." Keigo began rubbing his reddening forehead and sitting back beside Ikkaku. "I'm a bit curious about something." Without waiting for a response he continued. "Does this guy top or bottom? He may have the face and build of an uke but I'm willing to bet he's a hardcore seme."

"I was thinking the exact same thing!" Tatsuki added nodding to herself. "And how does phone sex work? I mean I have a general idea of how it works but what's his technique?"

"Ooh, I can tell you that!" Chizuru replied earning the stares of everyone around the kotatsu. "W-What? I've had phone sex with Ayasegawa-san."

"Ayasegawa... why does that name sound so familiar?" Keigo asked tapping his chin.

"Hold on... aren't you, like, into girls full-time?"

The bespectacled redhead rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mizuiro-kun, but that doesn't mean I can't experiment. Did you think I'd give Madarame advice without using it myself?" Ikkaku facepalmed. "He's so... what's the word? _Detailed. _He explained exactly what he was going to do and I couldn't—"

Tatsuki leaned over the kotatsu covering the redhead's mouth. "Okay, I really didn't like where that sentence was going."

"Me either." Mizuiro shuddered scooting closer to Keigo. "Wait, we got distracted. Ikkaku, what's Ayasegawa's preference?" Ikkaku gulped as all eyes landed on him, well except for Ichigo's and that was where their attention was going to be diverted next.

"What are you looking at Ichigo?"

Ichigo flinched looking up at Ikkaku smirking at him. Narrowing his eyes he returned his attention to the laptop in front of him. "Nothing..." Chad glanced down at the images displayed on the laptop nodding to Tatsuki who leaned closer to the laptop to get a better look.

"Damn, who. Is. _That_?" She asked crawling over to Ichigo leaning on his shoulder beckoning the rest of them over. Ichigo grumbled under his breath as the other four teens crowded over him.

The seven teens had their undivided attention on the page of one Jaegerjaquez Grimmjow; the current employee of the month of a website only operational for three months. Keigo whistled in appreciation at a picture of the boxer-clad blue-haired teen haphazardly sprawled out on a bed. No wonder this guy was so popular. "Fuck, that's a pretty big bulge." Chizuru pointed out tapping the aforementioned area on the screen. "I'm sure I've only seen about a handful of—" Tatsuki covered the bespectacled teen's mouth again.

"Ichigo..." Mizuiro prodded the teen's slightly red cheeks, "Ichigo, what's wrong?"

"Hey Ichigo." He glanced at Tatsuki who's head was now resting on his shoulder while she kept a hand on Chizuru's mouth. "Now I'm curious about something, someone of your ...prudish nature couldn't have possibly been an alpha so my question would be when you and Ishida were fucking did you top or bottom?"

The other six teens in the room blushed staring at Tatsuki. "Oh come on, you were all thinking it!"

"That doesn't matter. Its way too early to be asking him that! They just broke up for crying out loud!" Chizuru protested. "Although I am curious now..."

Mizuiro prodded the teen's cheeks again and Ichigo swatted the hand away. "Both." He grumbled miserably. As much as he didn't want to talk about it they would just keep harassing him until he told them so it was better off getting it out of the way now.

"Both? Ha! I knew he was a switch!" Keigo exclaimed, "you all owe me some money! Fork. It. Over~"

"Fuck... I could swear he was a sole bottom." Tatsuki sucked her teeth taking her wallet out of her pocket. Mizuiro, Ikkaku, Chizuru and Chad all followed suit taking out their wallets. "How much was it?"

"You guys bet on my sex life?"

"It wasn't your sex life Kurosaki-kun... just your sexual position preference." Chizuru shrugged oblivious to Ichigo's horrified expression, "we had a bet on your sex life _months _ago." Ichigo facepalmed. "Tatsuki-kun, Mizuiro-kun and myself all said you were a bottom; Sado-kun and Madarame figured you were a top by some chance; Kei-chan was the odd ball claiming you switched frequently."

Ichigo massaged his temples in a circular motion. These were his closest friends? Shaking his head he clicked on another picture; said picture had a boxer-clad, mischievously grinning, pillow wielding Grimmjow hanging off an equally half-naked Yumichika, and two other teens in similar states of undress but their faces were unseen by the pillows presumably thrown at their faces.

"Damn, why can't we have pillow fights like that?" Mizuiro asked with a pout. "Oi, isn't that your guy Ikkaku?" He pointed to Yumichika kneeling at the bed with Grimmjow leaning on him.

Keigo leaned closer to the laptop beside Chizuru; the only advantage of being the shortest two in the group was they could slip in and out of places easier than the others. It was a sad fact but Tatsuki was both taller and more muscular than Keigo; but fortunately he was slightly taller than Chizuru... but he wasn't as muscular as her either.

"He isn't _my_ guy." Ikkaku grumbled miserably looking at the picture. His scowl deepening once Chizuru changed the picture on the screen to another one with a half-dressed Yumichika and Grimmjow. Ikkaku was just a phone only client so he had no idea how good-looking the black-haired teen truly was, nevertheless Ikkaku found himself drawn to the teen merely by the sound of his voice. With that in mind, Ikkaku couldn't bear to have phone sex with him let alone look at his profile on the website. Prior to today, Ikkaku never visited the seireitei website because he knew his curiosity would get the best of him. Finding out that the sexy voice was housed by an equally sexy individual was nothing short of hell because now every time Ikkaku spoke to Yumichika he'd put a face to the name. Jerking off to a voice was bad enough but the fantasies would be more vivid with a face. Bad enough he couldn't masturbate that often because he and Ichigo shared a room and Ichigo was an incredibly light sleeper and with their conflicting schedules and damn meddlesome friends he seldom got time alone.

"Ikkaku!" His eyes narrowed at Tatsuki waving a hand in front of his face, "we're done getting jerked around by you. We heard Chizuru and now its your turn."

"I've never had phone sex with him, okay!" Every other jaw in the room dropped in disbelief. "I've never even seen his face before today."

"How long were you talking to him?" Ichigo asked shaking out of his stupor.

"About two weeks." Ikkaku shrugged, "it was sort of a belated birthday gift from Honshō." The aforementioned teen shrugged nonchalantly.

"Ah!" Keigo suddenly screamed. "I know where I know the name from." Everyone glanced at him skeptically. "Ayasegawa Yumichika is a student here... you know, at Rukongai?"

"He's right." Chad added nodding, "I've talked to him before."

"His voice is like liquid sex, right?" Chizuru asked.

"Uh, I don't know about that but I have a few classes with him."

"I think I do too..." Mizuiro added frowning.

"You're paying..." Tatsuki skimmed the page, "¥38,393 to shoot the breeze with a guy you could be talking to for free on campus? And where are you getting that kind of money from anyway?"

"You know, I'd be willing to talk to you for half the price." Tatsuki elbowed Keigo, "a third?" She nodded.

"Look. Like I said, I didn't know he was a student here. Fuck, is that my fault? ...No one answer that!"

"Chizuru? What were you thinking getting Ikkaku on the website to begin with? We all got him action figures, kendo sticks and video games then you break out a phone sex host?"

"Well~, he was there when I went on the website so I gave him Ayasegawa-san's number sort of as a bribe. How was I supposed to know he'd actually use it? Or that he wouldn't tell the rest of you?"

Sighing, Ichigo closed his laptop. "It doesn't matter. Ikkaku's never been one to use his brain in situations like this so we'll let him slide this time." The redhead slowly stood walking to their shared bedroom closing the door behind him.

Ikkaku's eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right. Ichigo never dismissed an opportunity to ridicule his decision making. The redhead clearly wasn't thinking about his break-up... something or maybe _someone_ was currently occupying his mind.

— — — —

Sighing in relief, Rukia closed her bedroom door behind her sliding onto the floor. Those little urchins were hell-bent on driving her insane but now that she was no longer required by her family for the night she was going to retire early – or least she would have had she not found seireitei earlier.

The only time the students seemed to be silent was when Orihime bent over which was quite often as the little perverts dropped things frequently. Once the tea school was over the teen bid Rukia adieu and went home, with Rukia's father walking her home. Rukia offered to go too but her dad quickly declined for her.

Slowly, Rukia got to her feet and sat at her computer chair. Now was the time for her to continue her search. The computer started up and she immediately went on the seireitei website over the internet. Picking up where she left off she typed in _'Abarai Renji' _in the website's search engine and was greeted with the sight of the redhead in a different picture than earlier the afternoon.

Now the redhead had on a pair of sunglasses _indoors_ taking a picture of himself in what was presumably a bathroom if the toilet in the corner was any indication wearing nothing but an undershirt, a pair of boxerbriefs and some socks. The grin he was sporting was rather mischievous …even more so than Grimmjow's.

Rukia swallowed thickly at the taut ass and well-defined musculature the picture presented her with. According to the page, the picture was updated only a few minutes ago which explains why it wasn't on the website at all earlier.

Eyes narrowing, the black-haired teen zeroed in at the bottom half of the redhead's body particularly his clothed crotch area that was jutting quite an impressive contour. Rukia had to wet her lips at that one; if Byakuya wasn't interested in him she sure as hell wouldn't mind spending the day with him.

The eighteen-year-old's eyebrows furrowed. She almost forgot what she was doing this for in the first place. Rukia didn't _fully_ go on this website to find good masturbation material; she was here to find Byakuya a suitable, sexy peon to get him to loosen up – and if that could only be achieved by sex or some other kind of physical encounter then so be it.

The black-haired teen opened her desk drawer and took out a notebook opening it to a blank page then took out a pen.

As he and Grimmjow were in damn near every picture together it was obvious the two were close friends, best friends even. Renji's profile did seem to have the same ...details as Grimmjow's but the criminal record wasn't nearly as extensive so he had to be a bit tamer than his blue-haired companion.

Okay... Rukia tapped the end of her pen against the notebook. She remembered her brother saying attractiveness wasn't solely based on one's looks – it was also determined by the individual's demeanor. She jotted that down tapping her chin with her free hand. In addition to the attitude and appearance Rukia was certain education was a big part of this.

Aside from his good looks and the fear he instilled on the general public, Byakuya was also the student government president because he was the number one student in the entire school despite only being a second year. Even if Renji wasn't a student of Rukongai, which he probably wasn't as Rukia didn't see him around nor was a school listed on his bio, Byakuya wouldn't bother conversing with an idiot and that wasn't just limited to conventional idiots either; if the two couldn't form a decent conversation there was very little hope for any kind of relationship to come to fruition. And it couldn't just be one of those pointless mind-numbing conversations it had to have some substance and if the talking got Byakuya to lose his composure it was an added bonus~

Which brought Rukia's thoughts back to Grimmjow. The blue-haired teen seemed like the type of individual that would willingly and deliberately push someone's buttons without hesitation. Getting along wasn't really the issue here, at least not yet, if they could converse that was all that mattered. _That_ was the chemistry Rukia needed. Being able to hold Byakuya's attention whether it was negatively or positively was the key.

Jotting that last bit of information down Rukia shut her notebook putting it back in her desk drawer. So she had two options both were mischievous, muscular, cocky bastards with tattoos but only Renji had long hair. Well, she'd see which one worked out – as Byakuya himself had long hair she figured she'd try the redhead first. Rukia only had something to lose if neither of them worked out.


	2. Can't spell cultural without cult

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach nor would I ever even think to say I do. I make no money from writing fanfiction and blah, blah, blah. I also do not own any of the mentioned or referenced manga or video games.

A/N: (on 02/10/12) ¥5,820 = $75; ¥7,760.50 = $100; ¥9,312.60 = $120; ¥15,521 = $200; ¥21,341.38 = $275; ¥27,161.75 = $350; ¥29,489.90 = $380; ¥31,818.05 = $410; ¥33,758.18 = $435; ¥35,310.28 = $455; ¥38,802.50 = $500; ¥42,682.76 = $550; ¥50,443.26 = $650; ¥56,263.63 = $725; ¥57,815.73 = $745; ¥60,531.91 = $780; ¥68,292.41 = $880; ¥73,724.76 = $950

If it wasn't obvious I will be rounding the prices to the nearest yen.

A/N # 2 - This Chapter's _Full_ Title is: Can't Spell Cultural Without Cult (aka The Rukongai University Cultural Festival) but the second half won't fit.

* * *

><p>"<em>I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun."<br>-Thomas A. Edison_

* * *

><p><strong>*Seireitei dot org price chart*<strong>  
>(<em><strong>All <strong>_payments are required up front, like, when you order;  
><strong>the cancellation fee is ¥15,521! Also required up front!<strong>)

_-Lets see... depending on your preferences you can spend a day, a week or a month with one of our employee for a moderate price via webcam, phone, or face-to-face.  
>-Spending a month talking to one of our handsome gentlemen will only cost you ¥38,803 and really, who measures the price of a good time?<br>-Or perhaps you'd prefer seeing them on the webcam monthly? Just an additional ¥3880! But I'm sure all these figures are confusing and making you not want to purchase so here's a list for your convenience:_

_-¥5,820: phone; one day  
>-¥21,341: phone; one week<br>-¥38,803: phone; one month_

_-¥7,761: face-to-face; one day  
>-¥27,162: face-to-face; one week<br>-¥42,683: face to face; one month_

_-¥9,313: webcam; one day  
>-¥29,490: webcam; one week<br>-¥50,443: webcam; one month_

_-¥31,818: phone + face-to-face; one week  
>-¥33,758: webcam + phone; one week<br>-¥35,310: face-to-face + webcam; one week_

_-¥56,264: face-to-face + phone; one month  
>-¥57,816: phone + webcam; one month<br>-¥60,532: webcam + face-to-face; one month  
>-¥68,292: face-to-face + phone + webcam; one week<br>-¥73,725: webcam + face-to-face + phone; one month_

_-You might notice that there is no option of fusing methods for a day, aside from it being physically impossible its a huge waste of time and money so its not available nor will it ever be~_

With a sigh of satisfaction, the brunet clicked the save button on the screen then leaned back in his seat resting his arms against his head. This was perfect, better than perfect. A lot customers were asking about the prices of all the options the website offered and even though the man in charge of the website lacked any kind of experience creating something of this magnitude (hence his reason for hiring someone, Hanatarō, to fill that void) he knew math and it was easy to figure out moderate prices that had no sort of equation or complicated formula no one could understand.

The prices were rather erratic but so was he; hell, this entire website was abnormal. Kyōraku Shunsui had his share of experience in this field being a host himself for a few years he knew that customers could only meet them at the bar or club they worked; as for phone sex ...the prices were so damn ridiculous that one would and could go bankrupt becoming a repeat customer. This website provided the best of both worlds and it was all at the customer's convenience. Being able to meet up with an attractive person (in this case male) whenever you choice for a fairly moderate price? What could be better than that?

"Shunsui?" Gray eyes lit up at the sudden intrusion and their owner eagerly turned the swivel chair around facing the white-haired man in the doorway.

"Shirō-chin, come in." Grinning, Kyōraku beckoned the skeptical man inside. "Take a look." Green eyes narrowed at the computer screen before returning to said computer's eccentric owner.

"What am I looking at?"

"What are you looking at? What kind of question is that? Don't you see the prices I have laid out?" Leaning closer to the screen, the white-haired man's eyes narrowed further. "I came up with them all myself. As I kept getting e-mails about it I figured its best to have the customers know exactly what's what before making their decision."

"I understand, but did you have to put the cancellation fee so big?" The brunet nodded. "Right... so what about the money back guarantee? You did say that was available."

Sighing, Kyōraku rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah... but that's not really pricing." The white-haired man facepalmed. "Besides, I mention that on the main page in the FAQs. If one does not find enjoyment in the employee they have selected for whatever reason and said employee agrees then they will be reimbursed – of course I'm just paraphrasing but you know..."

"Kyōraku-san?" Both men looked over the desktop at the black-haired teen bowing in the doorway.

"Ah, Hanatarō-kun, come on down!" Said teen hesitantly complied approaching the cherrywood desk. "Your page looks great, I never expected Ayasegawa-kun to accomplish such a feat in merely three days." Kyōraku nodded to himself, "I'm impressed and that doesn't happen often. But I digress, I'm sure being a student at Rukongai you've at least heard of my colleague Ukitake Jūshirō-chin." Said man bowed and Hanatarō nervously bowed back. "I need you to make him a page for me~"

"What? That wasn't apart of the deal Shunsui, you told me to help you make the website not ...sell myself on it!"

Kyōraku waved him off. "Selling your voice and time is no different from selling your ideas. Besides, don't forget you're the one that created this website so you deserve to have a page and that's that. Now, I don't want this page up yet just tease the customers a little." The brunet rubbed his hands together maniacally. "Make 'em go crazy trying to sneak peeks at him. Create the page little by little until everyone is so insane that they beg to have a look!"

"Uh... okay. I'll get to it tomorrow, if that's alright?"

"Tomorrow? B-But why not now?"

"I'd love to do it now, really I would, but I'm supposed to be meeting my roommate at the cultural festival in a half hour." Both men each rose an eyebrow and Hanatarō glanced between both of them. "Today is the Rukongai University cultural festival; I heard the student government and public morals committee put the whole thing together in less than a week. My roommate wanted to see how my school was..." Chuckling nervously, Hanatarō rubbed the back of his neck, "and as its open to the public—"

"Say no more!" Kyōraku interrupted startling the teen, "I'll be there." Ukitake gaped at him. "I need to talk to Yamamoto-jii about something anyway." He turned to the white-haired man staring at him, "come to think of it you work at Rukongai how did you not know today was the cultural festival?"

"I don't keep up with the student government... too many bad high school memories."

"Like it was my fault they set their guard dogs on me every few minutes?" Gray eyes darted around the room, "don't answer that! Hanatarō-kun today you are relieved of your duties to enjoy yourself at the cultural festival but in exchange I want tons of pictures and a chance to meet your roommate."

Hanatarō gulped nodding slowly. The pictures were fine as the brunet never stated who _or what _he wanted pictures of but the problem was having Kyōraku meet his roommate; Hanatarō knew as soon as the brunet saw him he would be dead set on trying to recruit him to the seireitei family.

Waving goodbye, Hanatarō exited the room and Kyōraku returned his attention to the white-haired man standing in front of him. "Well, we might as well get going too. I want to enjoy as much of the cultural festival as I can~"

"Right, but I just thought of something." Kyōraku glanced at his companion. "This is open to the public so why not use this opportunity to boost your website's popularity."

"I'm not sure I'm following."

Ukitake sighed, "listen. Half of your employees are students of Rukongai so they'll be there anyway but there's no guarantee the others will – make some sort of one day only deal or something like that."

"Hm..." Kyōraku tapped his chin, "now I know why I keep you around Jūshirō. I'll do that." Nodding, he grinned opening a new tab on his computer. "This day will be memorable to say the least!"

— — —

Rukia's eyes skimmed the price list as she leaned back in her seat. Today was the day of the cultural festival; the eighteen-year-old contemplated skipping the ordeal but she was immensely curious about what Byakuya would produce and she knew better than to ask him. With his straightening out, courtesy of their grandfather, the siblings relationship was strained at best.

Sighing, Rukia leaned forward propping her chin against her palms. She didn't want the old Byakuya back just to provide some semblance of joy to her miserable life but she truly missed the fun they would have together just bullshitting: like spitting watermelon seeds at unsuspecting people walking by, or making snowmen then having explosive snowball fights, or enjoying the festivals in the warmer months like the hanami or fireworks.

It wasn't as though Rukia herself wasn't on the Kuchiki clan's tight leash too but it was more like Byakuya was given more restrictions as he was older and almost a legal adult; he was given far more responsibilities than the average nineteen-year-old which practically forbade him from having fun but Rukia was more than willing to stop that even if it meant getting more responsibilities thrown at her.

Byakuya protected and helped her for most of his life so it was high time she repaid him for it.

The black-haired teen spent the last hour or so staring at half-naked pictures of Renji and Grimmjow having an internal debate trying to decide which one Byakuya would hate less; despite his stoic personality Byakuya was rather vocal about the things he abhorred. The way Rukia saw it the hatred he would possess could only go two ways – it could either turn into tolerance and maybe something more or become an even greater hatred like the unspeakable hatred Byakuya held regarding family 'friends' Ōtoribashi Rōjūrō and Shihōin Yoruichi.

Her goal was to get the old, fun loving Byakuya back which made Grimmjow the obvious choice – he had a couple of tattoos and his destructive nature would make anyone lose their composure with very little effort. Unfortunately, aside from the nagging feeling in her gut to not count out the long hair Renji possessed.

Grimmjow never had a client in the face-to-face method; every single client he had was either strictly phone or had a phone/webcam fusion and there was a small percentage of sole webcam clients. The website displayed the employees popularity among the methods on their page and there was a big, fat, bold zero next to face-to-face on Grimmjow's profile. Truthfully, Rukia couldn't really see fault in anyone thinking he was too damn crazy to approach one on one. Renji's profile didn't seem to fare much better in that aspect but he had one percent of face-to-face clients so it was _slightly_ better. Needless to say the two of them had the worst percentage of face-to-face clients in the entire website of twenty-four employees.

But the only way Byakuya himself could get in contact with any of them without knowing or suspecting some sort of reason behind it was by face-to-face – which rose the question of them being able to do that without telling him. As Rukia was paying she was technically the customer but there was no question about it on the website so she probably had to ask the website's creator himself when she called.

Frowning, she looked at Renji's page again tapping her finger against the mouse without clicking any of the images. She couldn't exactly call when she didn't know which employee she wanted. Every damn picture featuring the redhead had his hair in a high ponytail making it impossible to see how long his hair was. It wasn't a necessity but his damn hair was going to fuck over her decision before she even made it.

Rukia never had a gut feeling this strong before and it would be more than just a little stupid to ignore it. Plus, both teens were normally in the company of one another living together and being employed at the same place so even if by some chance he didn't find one attractive there would still be the other option.

Sighing, Rukia took out a coin from her desk drawer twisting it so that both sides were visible to her at some point. "I'll just leave it all to chance now... heads I'll call Renji; tails I'll call Grimmjow." Taking another deep breath, she flipped the coin in the air and as she was looking up there was a knock at her door.

"Rukia, are you going to the cultural festival?"

"Uh..." Eyebrows furrowing, she looked around the floor for the coin growling internally as her father knocked again. "Y-Yes, father. I'm going, I'll leave in a few minutes."

Her father replied with something but she couldn't hear him busy looking for the coin that seemed to disappear. Turning on her flashlight Rukia saw that the coin had rolled under her bed, it would be difficult grabbing it without flipping it over especially without the use of the nails she trimmed off completely two days ago.

Sighing again she just grabbed the coin looking at it frowning when it was standing upright. "Dammit!" Getting to her feet she flipped the coin again this time catching it in her hand. Sighing once more, she slowly opened her palm staring wide-eyed at the cherry blossoms engraved in the one hundred yen coin. And just like that with the simple flip of a coin her decision was made although it did pique her curiosity of what it landed on the first time she flipped it.

Nodding to herself she leaned forward in the chair looking at the price chart again. A day obviously wouldn't be enough to get the old Byakuya back and the week was quite the stretch; hell, a month might not even be enough time but it would have to suffice – after all that was the largest time frame seireitei offered and if he needed more time Rukia could just buy more. It wasn't exactly as though they didn't have money to spare.

The eighteen-year-old rubbed her hands together. Obviously, she couldn't call seireitei here and she definitely couldn't do it at the cultural festival either so she had to find some time between the two; perhaps take a slight detour. Nodding to herself, Rukia jotted down the seireitei website's main phone number in her notepad then took off her computer.

First time customers had to call the website in order to be put through to whichever employee they wanted; actually all customers were transferred to the main number but repeats didn't have to go through the whole long process all over again – unless they wanted to switch employees and even that didn't turn out to be as long as first timers.

If her class schedule wasn't so busy Rukia would have done this three days ago to save herself the headache but at the same time she couldn't decide which one she wanted so she'd be in the same situation anyway probably longer as she would have used her free time to mull over her indecision.

Sōjun glanced at his daughter as she trotted down the stairs in a balloon pattern yukata hoisting her backpack over her back. "Bye." She said toeing on her shoes. Sōjun rose an eyebrow, "uh... my geta are in my bag." She hoisted said item for emphasis. "Can't risk breaking a strap on the train." With a forced smile, Rukia waved to her father closing the door behind her. As Byakuya was deemed 'responsible' both their father and grandfather kept a particularly close eye on the eighteen-year-old probably waiting for her own rebellious phase they can vanquish before it fully blossomed.

Rukia couldn't afford to slip up in the least with this plan or it'll be shot to hell before it even began. Nodding to herself, the eighteen-year-old quickened her pace as she headed to the train station.

— — —

"I so love cultural festivals~" Keigo exclaimed in between bites; in his left hand was a taiyaki and in his right was a melonpan. "Especially the food!"

"We've noticed." Tatsuki deadpanned. "I don't understand why you and Ikkaku forced us to come to this stupid thing. Neither of you were all that interested in cultural festivals when we were in high school so why the sudden interest?" The black-haired teen cast a sidelong glance at Ichigo raising an eyebrow.

Posters for the Rukongai University cultural festival were all over every part of the campus for about a week as the entire thing was incredibly short notice but the grunts of the student government did their best to get the message out there happily passing out fliers around the school gates and train stations.

Tatsuki waved the whole thing off not really finding a fault or an interest in it but it was yesterday that Ikkaku begrudgingly made them all attend this stupid thing to show some school spirit perhaps punishing all of them for making fun of him for the last two days. As no one actually knew when he found the time (or cash) to talk to Yumichika they didn't know if he was still doing it having found out what the teen on the other side of the phone looked like.

"Come on, this thing isn't so bad. The food is great." Ikkaku remarked seemingly coming out of nowhere putting his arms around Tatsuki and Keigo taking an unprecedentedly large bite of out Keigo's cheese flavored taiyaki ignoring the brunet's whimpering.

"Ikkaku?" Immediately recognizing **that **voice, Ikkaku's hands dropped and his eyes widened plus his head whipped around far too quick for his liking but all that mattered was he saw Yumichika's smiling face and nothing else; and it was that same face that haunted his memories and invoked his fantasies for the past two nights non-stop. Ikkaku gulped. He was the fearless type, taking actions first and asking questions late completely unafraid of anything but this ...seeing Yumichika up close for free scared the hell out of him and with this new feeling Ikkaku had no idea how to react.

After seeing Yumichika's face, courtesy of his stupid friends, he lost count of how many different types of play his fantasies let loose on him but his masochistic tendencies made him continue to call the black-haired teen – he still had about two weeks to go and dammit he was going to use them even if he developed carpal tunnel syndrome in the process! It wasn't his fault Yumichika had a naturally seductive voice so he couldn't help masturbating while they spoke and often after. Ichigo spent most of the last two days locked up in their room doing who knows what making the bathroom available for Ikkaku to use at his discretion. Though it probably was the polar opposite of discreet.

The black-haired teen happily approached him swaying from front to back as Ikkaku nodded slowly. "I recognized your voice, now I have a face to match the name." The taller teen was startled to say the least when Yumichika eagerly and suddenly embraced him causing his friends to stare wide-eyed at the display. It was considerably rude not to hug back someone that hugged you so as brief as it was Ikkaku enjoyed the hell out of the embrace breathing in a sigh of satisfaction when it was over.

"Are these your friends?"

"Huh? Oh, I guess. From left to right its Ichigo, Kojima, Honshō, Tatsuki, Keigo and—"

"Sado-kun!" The others gaped as Yumichika waved and Chad waved back. He _did_ say he spoke to Yumichika when they looked up his profile.

"Yumi!" Someone hollered making the black-haired teen turn around. Sighing, he turned back to Ikkaku.

"I gotta go, maybe we'll bump into one another again. Nice meeting all of you." The six teens wordlessly stared at the black-haired teen as he walked off heading over to some blond before they disappeared.

Tatsuki was the first to shake out of her stupor shaking her head, "what... the fuck was that?" Ichigo, Chizuru, Mizuiro and Keigo shook out of their stupors moments later sporting similar confused expressions. "Chad, you didn't say you two were friendly!"

"You didn't ask." The black-haired teen stared dumbfounded at the brunet.

Ikkaku licked his lips subconsciously breathing in the barely recognizable scent of the teen that had just left. For fuck's sake even Yumichika's _scent_ was sexy! This was the highest level of madness Ikkaku could take before his mind imploded, hopefully he and Yumichika wouldn't bump into one another again so he could enjoy the cultural festival but he just knew he wasn't that lucky. Or maybe he was, it all depended on one's perspective.

"I'm kinda hungry." Ichigo said suddenly patting his stomach. "I want some takoyaki. I think I saw a shop a while ago so I'll catch up with you guys later—"

"Not so fast Kurosaki." Ikkaku said, "you don't think I don't know when you're up to something?" Brown eyes narrowed. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you were trying to distance yourself from us... and its probably what you've been working on the last three days."

Ikkaku wasn't the insightful type but it was pretty hard to miss Ichigo locking himself in their room, sure the room literally wasn't locked but outside of class Ichigo was in his room on his laptop naturally he couldn't tell anyone the reason not that it was any of their business anyway. The redhead was pretty impulsive by nature but his former relationship with a certain navy-haired bespectacled teen sort of put a damper on that aspect of his personality.

"Hey, isn't that Ishida-kun?" Tatsuki facepalmed as Chizuru tactlessly pointed at the bespectacled ex-boyfriend of Ichigo talking to a vendor. "I didn't think he was the type to go to cultural festivals... or any sort of public event!"

"He isn't." Chad deadpanned.

Ikkaku scowled. "Alright. You're off the hook this time Ichigo, go get your damn takoyaki while we keep four eyes busy."

"I—"

"You can't honestly tell us you're over Ishida in three days, you were going out for seven years Ichigo. _Seven years. _That's almost half of your life." Sighing, Ichigo looked down at the floor. Tatsuki nodded to herself. "That's what I thought."

Nodding, Ichigo walked off in the opposite direction that Uryū was in. He wasn't necessarily over him but he wasn't _not_ over him; seeing him wouldn't recreate any old memories or anything as he had a few dozen pictures of him all over. His friends offered to destroy, delete and/or burn all of the things he owned that reminded him of Uryū but Ichigo figured it wasn't necessary and they were probably interested in doing it to sate their need to break something. He and Uryū were friends first and lovers second so regardless of their relationship status they'd always be friends – at least that's what Ichigo thought. Then again, _that_ could have been the reason he was dumped in the first place.

Nevertheless, this was proving to be a well-timed distraction and one should never look a gift horse in the mouth. Ichigo figured he had to fake some sort of illness or something to get away but this would do just nicely. Smirking, he skillfully maneuvered through the crowd reaching the takoyaki stand getting a whole basketful to munch on while mulling over his next move.

And what a move it was. It was the damnedest thing really, for the past two and a half days he spent most of his free time staring at pictures of Grimmjow from seireitei not fantasying or anything, just ..._staring _when early this morning he got the sudden urge to call him and be the first face-to-face client the blue-haired teen ever had. As soon as he realized what he did in his lust induced trance it was too late; he wasn't about to shell out a cancellation fee in addition to paying to get the day with Grimmjow. Presumably, he would have gotten his money back if he canceled before actually showing up but he didn't think of that until much later and then it was really too late to cancel.

He was nervous to say the least, when he and Uryū were _physical_ they never went on dates or did much of anything aside from having sex so this whole thing was new to him even though it wasn't a date. It was more like hanging out with a hot stranger sixteen days younger than you were. "Excuse me, young man?" Ichigo looked around then pointed to himself. The white-haired man behind the counter nodded beckoning him over. "You seem rather ...tense." He said with an eery smile resembling one of those folklore foxes especially as his eyes were closed. The name-tag on his shirt read Ichimaru but Ichigo didn't look at that for long as a glass was slid toward him. "This might take the edge off."

Ichigo eyed the glass suspiciously. Yes, he was a minor but he had one careless parent at home so he dabbled in various types of alcoholic beverages over the years and this was definitely one of them – in fact Ichigo was certain this thing was pure vodka because the clear liquid burned the hell out of his throat as he sloshed it down. Who was he to turn down offered liquor? Besides cultural festivals were open to the public so adults were going to be here and they were going to drink.

"How much do I owe you?"

The white-haired man waved him off, "think nothing of it. We're supposed to be enjoying ourselves today. You're far too young to be so sulky." Raising an eyebrow at the broadening smile Ichigo nodded before he walked off. Popping a takoyaki into his mouth, Ichigo ventured around the cultural festival. The school was definitely a lot bigger than anyone would ever admit because the courtyard alone was easy to get lost in and the sea of bodies made travel even harder.

Ichigo may not have liked cultural festivals but he frequented them having been dragged to dozens by his sisters and even his father including the ones in his school that they forced him to take them to so he knew a bit about them and of all the cultural festivals Ichigo attended in his eighteen years none were as packed as this one and not everyone attending was in the main courtyard, all of the buildings were being used today so there was no doubt that they were all as crowded as can be. Any event that can get put together in a week and have such an impressive turn out must have been created by one incredible guy.

A tap on the shoulder nearly made Ichigo choke on a takoyaki. As he was about to turn around and tell off whoever the hell decided to disturb his snack time his jaw dropped. Grimmjow's grinning face was right in front of his. "Got some green onion on your face." The blue-haired teen commented leaning forward licking the remnants of the green onion of the astounded redhead's face.

The profile said Grimmjow was bold but _this_ was a whole new level of boldness. "Its Ichigo, right?" Grimmjow asked popping one of the takoyaki into his mouth. "Hmm... I bet you're wondering how I knew it was you, right?" Ichigo could only nod unable to use his voice; brown eyes were fixated on the blue-haired teen's mouth until he swallowed the takoyaki. "Well if you must know my buddy Yumi filled me in. I lost a bet we made earlier in the week so his 'prize' was to eavesdrop on one of my seireitei conversations, which happened to be yours, so he heard your name and voice pretty clearly that day. And I guess when he heard them again he recognized it then texted me the info telling me to keep an eye out for a guy with bright orange hair."

At Ichigo's horrified expression, Grimmjow grinned pinching Ichigo's cheeks stretching his face then ran his thumb against green onion filled lips and putting his thumb in his mouth licking it. "You know, that sexy voice of yours matches this face perfectly." Grimmjow licked his lips, "lets have fun together today, hm?"

— — —

How the hell did he get roped into this? Renji miserably trudged through the sex crazed masses of the Rukongai University cultural festival. A few of minutes ago, Kyōraku called in every available employee to make an appearance to boost seireitei's fanbase and not a ten minute or even an hour long appearance he wanted them there for at least three hours as the festival lasted about eleven or so. But naturally this little stint wasn't free, if you saw an employee that you were interested in you had to take a picture and send it to the website the prices of the employees had decreased drastically for the day but as everyone in the Kantō region was making an appearance Kyōraku would turn out one hell of a profit anyway.

To ensure that someone didn't try to talk to an employee for free they were obligated not to reply to any questions, comments, or concerns unless the customer received a(n automated) text from Kyōraku giving them the okay then showing it to the employee in question. The rules seemed stupid – hell they _were _stupid – but it was surprising how many customers were on seireitei today. Which pretty much proved how stupid most people truly were.

Sighing, Renji checked his watch – he had been here for approximately ten minutes and if things were continuing the way they were it would seem like an eternity before his three hours were over. It was an unfortunate thing that he was off from work today – _both jobs – _though the dojo had closed for the occasion as one of the senseis was a Rukongai alum. He could have told Kyōraku had had to work today but the brunet and his Las Noches boss, Baraggan, were pretty close so that was a no go and he wasn't the dishonest type or he would have said he showed up or faked an illness but either way one of his roommates (particularly Starrk who didn't want to be here either even though this was _his_ school) would just rat him out or some potential customer would complain about how he wasn't there which would in turn dock the hell out of the redhead's pay. Kyōraku paid the employees on commission in addition to a steady pay so not showing up would leave him broke and there was a new game he wanted to buy.

Pausing, he glanced over at the taiyaki stand purchasing a bag full. Perhaps the only good thing about this was the food, if the redhead was a claustrophobic he'd be screwed because there was no place to walk around without bumping into something or someone. Hell, he wasn't claustrophobic and this crowd was making him irritable. Seeing an empty table in the midst of scenic nowhere Renji sat on it placing his bag of taiyaki next to him. The fish shaped cakes came in all different flavors and Renji was more than willing to try them all even the gross sounding ones – as any true taiyaki fanatic would.

Before he could take his first bite of a custard flavored one three giggling girls snapped a couple of pictures of him before hastily twiddling their thumbs with a text. The girls had to be in high school as they had the gall to walk around in their school uniforms in the daytime on a school day; the all navy uniforms were familiar but Renji fought way too many students from other schools in his high school days to be able to tell apart uniforms at a mere glance. He may not have fought girls but most of the spectators were females so he saw their uniforms a lot too.

With the sudden intrusion the thought of enjoying his meal in peace was shot to hell. Kyōraku forbade them from ignoring any customers as that would also dock the hell out of their pay even more than not showing up. As the girls were staring intently at their phones Renji took the opportunity to try his taiyaki that was damn delicious. Once they received the texts the girls eagerly approached him flashing the text in front of Renji's eyes.

"Abarai-san, you are soooooo cute~" The first girl said shivering with what appeared to be excitement.

"I think you're way hotter than Jaegerjaquez." The second girl said smugly, "how come you're not on the choices for employee of the month? I would definitely vote for you!"

Renji sighed, he knew _that_ question was coming. It wasn't mandatory but most of the employees jumped at the chance to one-up each other but Renji just wanted to get paid so he wasn't too concerned with popularity, even the most unpopular employee got a pretty hefty paycheck. Commission was both a blessing and a curse. "I'm not really interested in it." He replied repressing the increasing urge to bolt as the girls sighed dreamily at him.

"Can I take a picture with you Abarai-kun? _Pllllleeeeeeaaasssseeee? _My friends totally won't believe I saw you here!" The third girl all but screamed. Renji nodded and the third girl squealed before jumping on the table sitting beside Renji snapping a picture of the two of them. Once she was done she squealed again showing it to her two friends. "You are amazing~"

"So, what high school do you three go to?"

The three girls blinked somewhat stunned by the question but the first one answered after a few seconds. "We're third years at Naruki High."

"We heard stories about how you were a first year and single-handedly defeated some of our third years three years ago." The second girl pipped in nodding. "It was nothing short of brilliance." The other two girls nodded in agreement.

"Right..."

"Oh! Is that Hisagi-san?" Squealing the trio ran off in the direction of the black-haired teen. Renji couldn't help but chuckle as the girls surrounded the nineteen-year-old snapping pictures of him then prodding him for info; Hisagi Shūhei might have looked like a thoroughbred badass with his overall punk rocker appearance but he was adorably humble when it came to flattery or flirting.

All of his roommates came here at different times with different agendas so, unless they bumped into one another, Renji had no intention of flagging any of them down even though paling around this thing with any of them might have made it more bearable than it was now. Shrugging, Renji hopped off the table grabbing his taiyaki bag. High school girls were chatty so his place of seclusion would be swarming with groupies in a matter of moments. He wanted to get paid so he had to at least attempt to give a damn but there was no way he would deal with any more customers on an empty stomach.

With his taiyaki in hand Renji passed by an empty stall. The sign hanging above the stall said _'kissing booth'_ but there was also a sign on the stall in bold letters that said coming soon. Despite that, there was a forming line of rather patient customers heavily applying chapstick and lipgloss to their pursed lips.

Renji wouldn't exactly mind getting in on some of the action but he still had more wares to sample so this would have to wait until later.

— — —

"Do you guys see the line out there~?" The green-haired girl asked squirming from side to side peeking through the tent. "Its so long and the kissing booth isn't even open yet! Ooh, I can't wait to get my smooch on!"

"Kuna, settle." The teen pouted and Szayel adjusted his glasses. "We need to have some sort of order or this whole thing will turn disastrous and not in the way that I enjoy." The student government glanced amongst themselves in confusion and fear. The pink-haired teen pulled out a clipboard. "Put your name on the list and remember the order you'll be going in. Kuchiki-kun and myself will close this thing out—"

"Say, otōto, wouldn't it make more sense for one of you to go first?" Szayel's eyes narrowed at his twin who shrugged. "I'm just asking."

"No, which is why you are going first Yylfordt-nī." The blond's jaw dropped. "Thanks for volunteering." Grinning, Szayel wrote down his brother's name at the top of the previously blank list before passing it around.

The list made its way back to Szayel who stared blankly at it. The student government gulped collectively. Even without Byakuya's presence the pink-haired teen was scary but if they thought things couldn't get worse the aforementioned president strolled into the tent in time to get the clipboard from Szayel.

Byakuya unhooked his glasses from his collar and put them on to skim the list briefly before handing it back to his vice president and putting his glasses in their previous position. "You are all free to go until your shifts begin."

"You sure that's a good idea, what if they fuck this up?"

"You can't expect to keep them hostage here because we'll have to stay here with them."

"Good point." Sighing, Szayel turned to the group startling them. "Didn't you hear the man? Enjoy the cultural festival!" Flinching, the volunteers ran out of the tent dispersing. "Alright, so what do you plan on doing?"

"I don't know yet, I'll probably get something to eat. You?"

"Same, I wasn't really hungry until you said something though." Szayel patted his stomach for emphasis. "While I'm at it I'll hit a few teachers in the dunk tanks and things like that." Amber eyes glanced at the direction of the lanky black-haired teen still seated at the table with his feet propped on said table.

"Enjoy spending time with your boyfriend Granz."

Blushing slightly, Szayel waved Byakuya off as he left. "My my..." The teen chuckled taking his feet down and licking his lips, "to get the almighty Granz-sama to blush is a feet in itself. Kuchiki-san isn't someone to fuck with."

Szayel walked over to him sitting on his lap, "I had to pull a few strings to get your job hopping ass to even participate so don't make me regret it Nnoitra."

Grinning, the black-haired teen nuzzled his face against Szayel's neck. "We have the whole tent to yourselves while the kids are away~"

"Well—"

"Ahem." Both teen's glanced at the blond clearing his throat. "I'm still here you know." Yylfordt shook his head. "Not that I get off to this kind of shit nor am I interested in your crazy sex life but you got a rep to obtain V.P so please remember the T.P.O. Besides, your craziness will drag down the Granz name and as the eight minute older brother _I _can't have that." Shooting the black-haired teen a dirty look, the blond haughtily exited the room.

"That totally killed my mood." Nnoitra sighed, "how could I not be attracted to him and you two look alike?" Szayel shrugged getting off the black-haired teen's lap. "What? No snu snu?"

"Sorry babe, but the cultural festival isn't too long and you know you like the need after you've waited a while to get off."

"Yeah..." Nnoitra sighed as Szayel pulled him up from the chair. "That's what I get for fucking a sadist."

Szayel smirked. "Well, if I'm a sadist that makes you quite the masochist." Sighing, the black-haired teen followed Szayel out of the tent.

True to his word, Byakuya was at one of the food vendors. Szayel had to chuckle at the poor girl trying her hardest not to stare vacantly at her customer. The past few days working with the slightly older teen made Szayel see just why Byakuya was so misunderstood – most of the students who tried to flirt with the black-haired teen were cowards pure and simple. They deemed him as unapproachable because they didn't try to get too close to him and the reason for that was he constantly _looked_ like he was pissed off at the world. Though Szayel did suspect that he truly was pissed most of the time.

Gray eyes glanced over in his direction and Szayel couldn't help but smirk and wave. Byakuya nodded his greeting as his hands were full with some kind of basket. The pink-haired teen was about to go sample one when Nnoitra pulled him toward him. "Come on, I wanna go on some rides before the lines get too long."

"Uh, this isn't an amusement park Nnoitra, there are no rides here."

"What? Then what the hell am I helping out for?" Sighing, he scratched his head with his free hand. "I guess we can play some games or something or are those not there either?"

"They have games... more or less."

As Szayel was being dragged around the courtyard by his boyfriend, Byakuya returned his attention to his snack which were chocolate covered bananas; normally the nineteen-year-old didn't partake in the consumption of sweets but he couldn't deny the craving for bananas as soon as he saw them.

With all the volunteers for the kissing booth it would be a good two hours or so before he as needed back under that tent so in the aforementioned allotted time he was free to do whatever he pleased ...or at least he would have until he saw Rukia running toward him.

"Hi." She greeted panting.

"Did you just get here?" The eighteen-year-old nodded. Byakuya glanced down at his basket offering one of the chocolate covered bananas to his little sister who eagerly accepted it. It sort of reminded him of their younger years in which they would share food at festivals.

"Where are you heading?" She asked in between bites.

"To sample more food, are you interested in joining me?"

The eighteen-year-old had to ponder that for a minute, she was always up for spending time with her brother rebellious or not but she had a certain redhead to look for and it would be a little hard to explain why she kept looking over her shoulder every few seconds. Damn Byakuya and his incredible perception! "No thanks nī-san." She began taking a step back. "I really wanna check out the maid cafe first and foremost, Kiyone said—"

As she was walking backwards and talking, she bumped into someone. Eyebrows furrowing she looked up and her jaw dropped. The owner of those beautiful chocolate eyes she was captivated by was the same guy she was looking for.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Purple eyes widened before Rukia fully turned to him bowing. "I'm so sorry. I should have watched where I was going... in fact I shouldn't have been walking backwards to begin with!"

"I keep telling you not to do that."

Both eighteen-year-olds looked up at Byakuya shaking his head. "It wasn't all her fault, I gotta admit these bananas are kinda distracting." The siblings eyes zeroed in on the redhead's mouth as he inadvertently took an incredibly seductive bite out of his fruit that had to be covered in white chocolate of all things.

As the redhead licked his lips to get off the creamy white stuff – oh fuck even thinking about it was dirty! Rukia gulped then her head snapped up to her brother who appeared to be in a trance. It was at that moment when Rukia realized she made the right choice calling...

_Calling?_

Purple eyes widened once more, Rukia resisted the overwhelming urge to bash her head into the nearest flat and hopefully hard surface repeatedly. She was so busy texting Kiyone on the train that she didn't even bother calling Renji and he was standing right in front of her – it was one of those so close yet so far away things.

If she wanted to approach the redhead for seireitei purposes then she would need to go through that whole seireitei first timer thing which was something else she couldn't do around her brother. "Aniki." Shaking out of his stupor, Byakuya glanced down at his sister. "I'm heading out." She bowed at the redhead. "Sorry again." Then in the blink of an eye, Rukia disappeared whipping out her cellphone.

"Sorry about bumping into your sister man."

"Like I said it was because of her own carelessness."

Renji nodded. "Right, hey if you're looking for something else to snack on you should definitely check out the taiyaki place. They have all sorts of different fillings today." Byakuya nodded. "See ya."

The redhead walked off and Byakuya was determined not to stare at his ass but found himself failing somewhat. Thankfully, the redhead was out of sight in a few minutes allowing Byakuya to regain his senses he couldn't afford to get distracted with the cultural festival in full swing; afterwords was a different story but if something should happen both he and Szayel would be taking the fall since they put this thing together _and_ they were the student government president and vice president.

Byakuya sighed, he'd take the redhead up on his offer of getting some taiyaki for some unexplainable reason he was craving more sweets.

— — —

Sighing heavily, Starrk deposited his cigarette butt in the nearby ashtray then leaned his head back against the bench. Any sort of festival was boring as all hell and the nineteen-year-old merely tolerated them because of his simple-minded friends but as they had all vanished left to their own devices the brunet was left here for three hours to bullshit flirting with the masses. The flirting part wasn't the problem, naturally, it was the boredom from just waiting around until some potential customers sniffed him out. Because he had no intention of finding clientele. No amount of money was worth the trouble – besides even if he wanted to he couldn't go looking around for people.

Sighing once more, Starrk's head flopped up to its normal position in time to see a yukata clad Hanatarō walk by with some unfamiliar albeit attractive yukata clad gray-haired guy. Most things annoyed the hell out of the brunet, but for some reason the petite black-haired teen was one of the few antitheses. Much like how his roommates interested him in so many different ways. Breaking out in a predatory smirk, the brunet gracefully rose from the bench stretched briefly then merrily walked over to the two teens.

"Hiya." Clearly startled, the black-haired teen hid behind his taller, angrier companion. Starrk glanced down at the black fingerless gloved hands balled up into a fist. Unlike some of his more aggressive roommates, Starrk didn't fight just for the hell of it – judging by the angry expression the teen was sporting he was the easily angered type ...unless he was prone to perpetual frowning. Either way this guy wasn't just someone to fuck with.

He wasn't willing to fight for Hanatarō ...yet so he might as well put his guard down to seem less of a threat. Alpha males really dug that shit and had the tendency to loosen up around more submissive creatures. Internally shrugging, the brunet bowed. "Good seeing you again Hanatarō-chin." From behind the gray-haired teen the aforementioned teen nodded timidly. "I'm Starrk."

"Kensei." The gray-haired teen replied bowing curtly.

Hanatarō gulped as the air in the surrounding area seemed to chill drastically. Truthfully, Hanatarō had no problem with Starrk – sure he scared the hell out of him but so did Yumichika's other friends; as well as lots of other bigger, angrier people. Then again, this was only the second time that they met so Hanatarō couldn't have any opinion one way or the other for a guy he didn't know. But safe for Shūhei, most of Yumichika's friends did seem to have rather threatening personalities and Hanatarō was quite skittish by nature. The black-haired teen relentlessly attempted to get Hanatarō to hang out with his friends perhaps attempting to loosen him up and/or get him to stop fearing them but for every second he spent with them he was even more afraid.

Once, Hanatarō woke up with Grimmjow taking half-naked pictures of him so he obviously had good reason to be weary with anyone associated with him. As the brunet started chatting idly with his roommate, Hanatarō had to look up at the gray-haired teen. Muguruma Kensei was Hanatarō's current roommate and best friend for a good ten years or so. Unfortunately, Kensei had two best friends and the other truly couldn't stand Hanatarō for various reasons. Nevertheless, they attempted to maintain some level of mutual neutrality in their shared best friend's presence.

Strangely enough, Kensei wasn't the overprotective type. It could be due his lack of nurturing or just his scary 'I-don't-give-a-fuck' persona but unless Hanatarō looked extremely uncomfortable – like he did right now – Kensei really didn't do anything. Of course, given Hanatarō's personality and horrible luck almost anyone would jump at the chance to keep him out of harm's way.

Being around Kensei made Hanatarō stronger, well not physically anyway, but he could do things simply because his best friend was around and believed in him. But he wasn't crazy and knew his limitations and this was far beyond them.

According to Yumichika, Hanatarō possessed an adorable face. The kind of face that perverts of all kinds were drawn to – it was bad enough he was coerced into taking calls and video chats from strangers (he wasn't crazy enough to offer himself on a face-to-face level yet) but to run and hide from oglers on a personal level was too much.

The snap of a camera phone jarred the black-haired teen out of his thoughts. "Its Yamada-kun~" Was the collective squeal when the camera phones were lowered revealing several faces both male and female. "Oh! Starrk-san is with him! Talk about a twofer!" More snapping ensued then the crowd of people hovered around the duo.

"Hanatarō..." Kensei began but the black-haired teen sighed shaking his head. It was sort of his fault Kyōraku came up with this crazy-ass idea in the first place so he might as well get an adequate punishment besides it was a bit of good fortune to have another employee with him. Even if said employee wasn't exactly the one he wanted to be left alone with.

"Ooh..." One of the girls glanced at the gray-haired teen who had his arms folded over his chest. "I've never seen your face before, are you from seireitei too?"

"No." Was the curt reply that had the girl flinch.

"Hanatarō-kun!" With his proven track record of bad luck, Hanatarō knew better than to use the phrase 'at least things can't get any worse' because they often did but he wasn't thinking along those lines but nevertheless Kyōraku and his white-haired companion walked over to them oblivious to the awe-inspired stares from the potential customers.

The brunet glanced at a few of the customers. "Oh... I'm sorry, was I interrupting something?" The entire group shook their heads simultaneously.

Kyōraku turned to Hanatarō or more accurately Hanatarō's roommate. "Hello Hanatarō-kun, who might this gentleman be?"

"This is my roommate Muguruma Kensei." Kyōraku bowed enthusiastically and Kensei returned the gesture with far less enthusiasm.

"I'm Kyōraku Shunsui and this is Ukitake Jūshirō." The aforementioned white-haired man bowed and Kensei bowed again. "Would you be—"

"No."

"No? But I didn't even finish asking you anything!"

"Doesn't matter. I know what you're gonna ask. You're the guy in charge of seireitei and you want to hire me well I ain't interested. Period."

Starrk was behind the flabbergasted brunet smirking. This Kensei guy was going to be an interesting one for sure. Sighing, Kyōraku twiddled his thumbs. "Well... in case you change your mind for whatever reason Hanatarō-kun knows where I am." Kyōraku cleared his throat, "as you were." He said nodding at the girls grabbing Ukitake's hand and walking off. The girls stared at Kensei before shying toward Hanatarō and Starrk.

"I'll be at the food booths Hanatarō." The black-haired nodded slumping his shoulders slightly as he saw his best friend's retreating form disappear into the distance.

"You certainly are loved Hanatarō-chin, I'm quite jealous." Starrk put an arm around the shorter teen's tense shoulders. "Alright folks, lets answer some questions."

Meanwhile... Kensei trudged to the food booths with his hands shoved in his pockets grumbling to himself; the snack he ordered had its image littered all over the walls and buildings but he didn't really know its name by heart but that didn't matter he wasn't really in the mood to eat anyway.

He _tried_ to get Hanatarō to quit that website but the black-haired teen was determined to stay on even if he received his own page and was getting calls all hours of the night. Sex sold itself, Kensei had no problem admitting it – yes his best friend was adorable and had that aura of innocence around him but even if he was limited in other jobs he didn't have to literally sell himself to make some money. The gray-haired teen had no problem paying the bills but Hanatarō was a stubborn one. He might not have looked it but he was stubborn all right.

"There you are~" Shinobu Eishima hollered clamping a hand on Kensei's shoulder. "I saw Hanatarō-kun with a few of his fans, it was quite adorable. Why aren't you by his side? Did you quit playing the bodyguard role?"

"No. I'm giving him space to do what he needs to do. I got nothing to do with his job."

The redhead nodded in understanding. Sometimes Kensei was too sweet for his own good. "Ooh! Is that a dunk tank? Man this festival has everything. Later Kensei!"

— — —

Fun, huh? What kind of 'fun' were they supposed to be having? This was the complete opposite of fun! In layman's terms, Ichigo was pissed. No, in fact, he was so far beyond the point of aggravation that mere words could not describe it. The reason for the current change in his demeanor was because of Grimmjow.

Ichigo shelled out a lot of money to spend the day with that blue-haired jackass; but every possible hormone induced individual in the vicinity somehow sensed Grimmjow's presence and latched onto every available body part they could grab; taking pictures, asking questions and doing all sorts of other things that some 'one day only' price could allow. Ichigo wished he had heard of it instead of paying the regular amount he did. According to the seireitei poll, Grimmjow was equally popular amongst both genders so it was no surprise the hoard was equally divided between the sexes.

It was completely pointless to try swimming through the sea of sex crazed bodies and Ichigo wasn't willing to engage in a fight just to get closer. Some of those fans were incredibly violent.

Instead of trying to get closer, Ichigo opted for heading to one of the more secluded parts of the festival. It was an abandoned booth in the middle of scenic nowhere that had a peaceful aura to it.

Sure, Ichigo was extremely hotheaded and very easily annoyed but he wasn't the kind of guy to get upset over a bunch of shameless idiots throwing themselves at someone he was hanging out with. Paying for Grimmjow and not spending time with him made him almost as pathetic as Ikkaku. The only possible upside was that he wasn't having much of a good time so he could always get his money back. "Ah, so we meet again?" Ichigo looked up at the same white-haired man from earlier. "I wonder if I could see you smile?"

"Doubt it." Ichigo sighed. The redhead eyed the pristine glasses behind the white-haired man.

"Ah... I get it. One wasn't enough, have your fill young man."

Ichigo nodded slowly reaching for the cup. The redhead quickly downed the drink in one gulp somewhat surprised when the cup was refilled as soon as it hit the counter.

He probably shouldn't think about spending time with Grimmjow – there were dozens of other prospects willing to burn their undergarments for him. It felt like dating Uryū all over again. Having the bespectacled teen away with the crowd leaving Ichigo to his own devices.

Shit, was it his fault he wasn't the jealous type? Ichigo sighed, okay being with Uryū for so long meant he had no idea how to be single but maybe it was better being alone. Speaking of alone, Ichigo thought after being together for seven years then abruptly breaking up he would be a complete wreck. Surprisingly, he wasn't as miserable as he though he would be.

The glass hit the counter with a clink and Ichigo sighed again. He didn't feel completely drunk but his head was kinda fuzzy. He stared at the glass as the white-haired man refilled it for perhaps the sixth, seventh... maybe the eighth or ninth time. It didn't matter; as long as they were free he'd drink until they called poison control.

When Ichigo caught his father drinking himself stupid the black-haired man usually said it was to forget. The first time his father did that was after his wife's funeral almost nine years ago. Kurosaki Isshin had been so miserable to lose his wife and children's mother that he drank until he blacked out. Having been a doctor he drank exactly the amount before he could hit alcohol poisoning or something far worse.

Like father, like son right? Ichigo planned on following in his father's footsteps drinking until he forgot. Forget about Uryū; forget about all the money he wasted on that sexy bastard; just forget about everything.

Once his drink was finished, he put his head on the counter. Now not only was his head spinning in all sorts of different directions but he was hot too.

The white-haired man appeared to be smiling wider as he came closer. "Are you okay?" Ichigo nodded slowly. "I must admit, you have quite the high tolerance. I wasn't expecting you to last this long. Good thing I gave you something stronger..."

Leaning forward, the man tilted Ichigo's head upward pressing their lips together. As Ichigo opened his mouth, presumably to breathe, the proprietor shoved his tongue inside the waiting mouth dueling against the tongue of its owner easily winning. Once satisfied, the man slowly detached his lips licking Ichigo's once more for good measure.

"I knew something was special about you." Chuckling, he poured the redhead another glass.

Ichigo sat up slowly grabbing his glass when his sunlight was suddenly taken away from him. Ever so slowly, the redhead turned to his left seeing a panting Grimmjow now standing in front of him. "Why the hell did you leave? I was looking all over this damn festival for you!"

Panting some more, the blue-haired teen sighed heavily then plopped down on the stool next to Ichigo. "Did you forget about our day together? I ain't gonna get paid if you're not there."

It took Ichigo about a minute to process Grimmjow's presence then about another minute to understand what was being said to him. "Forget about that." He waved Grimmjow off. "You'll still get paid..." He slurred lifting up the glass surprised when it didn't reach his opened mouth.

Grimmjow snatched the glass in question before it made contact with Ichigo's lips and drank it himself. "Damn that's strong!" He slammed the glass down on the counter. "no wonder you can barely sit up." The blue-haired teen glanced at his flushed, disheveled companion.

Like Starrk, Grimmjow rarely found an interest in other people. Most of his friends, with the extreme exception of the ever unpredictable Renji, were even boring sometimes. This morning's conversation with the redhead made him look forward to meeting him. The voice already made him half-hard and they weren't even having phone sex but today's ...situation only made the interest increase.

Grimmjow licked his lips seeing the redhead sit up slowly. Adrenaline must have been fueling the redhead's actions yesterday because he was acting like a completely different person right now. The teen seated before him was a little shy and blatantly shitfaced yet there was something as alluring as the seductive, playful creature flirting with him on the phone.

Seemingly having enough just staring, Grimmjow nudged Ichigo. "Come on, lets get you sobered up." Standing, he put Ichigo's body on his struggling to stand fully. Okay, so there were about the same height – how was he supposed to know that by sitting?

Grimmjow turned to the white-haired man cleaning an empty glass. "I'll cover the tab, how much?"

Chuckling, the white-haired man waved the teen off. "Think nothing of it, we're here to enjoy ourselves." Grimmjow eyed the man pouring himself a drink before dragging Ichigo away from the booth.

"Didn't your parents ever teach ya not to take shit from strangers?"

"No, my mom died when I was nine." Grimmjow seemed taken aback by that statement; clearly not expecting that response. He heard alcohol acted as a truth serum for many but this was the first time he witnessed it. "Didn't _your _parents teach you not to lick other people's faces?" Ichigo slurred glaring at the blue-haired teen.

"They probably would have if I had any. I'm an orphan." Ichigo gaped at him. "Pity you won't remember this conversation..." Grimmjow shook his head. "You go to this school? Where's the infirmary?"

Ichigo shrugged swaying lightly forcing Grimmjow to adjust his angle instead of trying to hold the redhead up with his arm over his shoulder he grabbed Ichigo's waist keeping him closer. "Has your ..._group_ disappeared?"

"Yeah, off to find another employee. My my, don't tell me you were jealous? Don't be. None of those assholes combined are as adorable as you are."

"Yeah..." Ichigo's eyes narrowed as he chuckled. "That's funny..." Fortunately, his motor skills had yet to fail him even though his mobility and equilibrium seemed to.

"Grimmjow? What the fuck are you doing?" The blue-haired teen sighed in relief as Renji walked over to him. "Do I _want_ to know what's going on?"

"I didn't do jack shit just to let ya know. Mr. _'I'm-sexier-than-my-voice-led-me-to-believe'_ got his own ass drunk. I'm just helping clean up the mess."

"Uh, Grimmjow... this wouldn't happen to be a client, would it?"

"No, he's my fucking brother. Of course he's a client and he's a fucking heavy one too! Give me some help instead of just standing there man."

"Right, right..." Grinning, Renji swung Ichigo's arm over his shoulder. "Better?" Grimmjow glared at him. "You should probably take him to the infirmary, see if they got anything to help." Renji sighed, "I'm just glad I finished all my food before spotting you."

"What do ya think I was trying to do?" Grimmjow rose an eyebrow, "what food?"

"Food, ya know. Shit around the festival. How was I supposed to know I'd bump into you when I finished?" Grimmjow glared at him. "I don't remember you ever sharing your food with me."

"What the hell are you talking about? I _always_ share with you Renji-chan~" The redhead rose an eyebrow. "Alright, alright. Not **always **but that doesn't matter. Man, I haven't eaten in like hours with all those damn 'customers' harassing the hell out of me asking all sorts of dumbass questions. I'm fucking starving."

"I saw a cafe not too far from here. It said certain shit was free so—"

"You had me at cafe, lead the way Abarai."

"I thought you were going to the infirmary?"

"You mentioned food so that's where we're going first."

— — —

Panting heavily, Ikkaku leaned against the wall attempting to catch his breath. He spent the majority of the cultural festival palling around with his friends. He didn't have a watch but he didn't need one to know he was there for a while. Everything was running swimmingly until Tatsuki and Chizuru spotted Yumichika. According to seireitei's one day only special if one wanted to engage in conversation with an employee they were required to take their picture and that was exactly what they did. Chad, Keigo and Mizuiro were so engrossed in whatever the black-haired teen was saying that no one noticed Ikkaku vanished until it was too late. Well, Keigo noticed but like the best friend he was didn't say anything.

He already saw Yumichika once today he wasn't going to tempt fate seeing him again. The buzzing of his cellphone made him cringe. In his haste he shoved his phone into back pocket which he hated doing. Sighing, he pulled the phone out glancing at the name and picture of Keigo on the screen. "Yeah?"

"_Just wanted to let you know that the coast is clear. In case you were wondering. I think Tatsuki-kun and Chizuru-chan scared Ayasegawa-san away. Oh, by the way I figured you'd want to know that he asked about you."_

"Yeah, that's great. Where are you?"

"_Uh... I'm not sure. I went to the bathroom and when I came out everyone left. Wanna meet up somewhere?"_

"Alright. Lets get something to eat, I'll meet you at that maid cafe."

"_Gotcha. See ya."_

"So, who was on the phone?" Ikkaku screamed nearly jumping in the air startling the teen beside him. "Damn, why are you yelling?"

"Y-You scared the hell out of me!"

"I see that..."

"W-Where the hell did you come from anyway?"

Yumichika shrugged. "You know, around. I saw you ducking in a corner so I decided to come over and say hi. I was hoping we bumped into one another again but Kyōraku put out that stupid rule... oh! Speaking of which, you don't have to worry about taking a picture or paying to talk to me because I approached you." Ikkaku nodded slowly. Yumichika must not have realized that he was babbling because he kept spewing out words at an astounding pace. It was nothing short of miraculous everything came out clearly. "So, I saw a bunch of your friends earlier but you weren't there. Where did you disappear to?"

"I wanted to do my own thing, you know how it is. But I'm sure if I saw you with them I would have stayed." Yumichika's eyes narrowed but he didn't comment further locking his hands behind his head. There were probably dozens of people searching high and low for the black-haired teen so Ikkaku, as much as he didn't want to, couldn't afford to hang around Yumichika for too long and that was as literal as it was figurative.

"So... it was great seeing you again, I think I'll be—" As Ikkaku made a move to walk away Yumichika grabbed his arm.

"Why are you avoiding me?"

"Huh?"

"Don't play dumb, I'm far better at it. You think I wouldn't recognize your bald head from a crowd?"

"**I'm not bald!**"

"I don't give a shit; after talking to you for two weeks I think I'd at least recognize your voice. So when I heard it again today, I went over but when I looked up you disappeared. I swear if you don't tell me why you're avoiding me I'm going to have to kick your ass."

"I'm not avoiding you, don't flatter yourself. I had to pee, the lines for the bathrooms nearby were so long that I went to a more secluded area. After all our conversations, did you really think I would avoid talking to you?"

Yumichika pursed his lips adorably. "I can't imagine why you would but I'm not stupid enough to believe you right now." Ikkaku gaped at him. "Tell ya what. Spend the rest of the cultural festival with me and we'll call it even, fair?"

"How the hell is that fair?"

"It isn't." Yumichika latched his arm around Ikkaku's. "Lets go!"

"Go? Go where?"

Yumichika laughed, "the kissing booth silly. That's but one of our many stops today!"

— — —

"Kuchiki-san, we have a problem!" With his taiyaki in hand, the nineteen-year-old glanced down at the panting subordinate slumped forward in front of him. "Have you heard of seireitei? The owner is here trying to make a profit off of our festival! I— Granz-san!" Szayel sighed trudging over to the black-haired teen. "The seireitei website owner is making money off our festival!"

"I don't see how that's a problem, half the employees are students anyway. Damn Hinamori get your thumb out of your ass and quit bitching. Read a book sometime there's no harm in soliciting one's business in free space, its worse than snitching on the public morals committee."

"Just a heads up." Yylfordt added popping up from behind his brother's back. "My brother gets kinda cranky when he isn't being sexed up by Gilga; especially if said sexing up was interrupted. Personally I think its—" The blond groaned as his brother elbowed him in the stomach.

"If there's nothing else, I'll be going." Grabbing his brother's arm, Szayel walked off.

The black-haired teen looked at Byakuya. "I-If it isn't a problem I guess I'll take my leave." Before Byakuya could utter a sound she disappeared.

Sighing, Byakuya continued to walk taking bites out of his taiyaki. This particular one was strawberry filled and oddly delicious for someone who normally didn't partake in the consumption of confections. That damn redhead made it look so good he had to have it himself. Or was it the redhead that looked delicious?

Contrary to popular belief, Byakuya wasn't as asexual as everyone figured someone as stoic as him was. To be honest he wasn't all that stoic either. The nineteen-year-old just had a far better handle on his hormones and emotions to fly off the handle at every little provocation – at least _anymore_. Had he not been able to control his temper he would have snapped on the entire student government (safe for Szayel) at least twice during each meeting. In fact, he probably wouldn't even be _in_ the student government if he couldn't control his temper. As for his hormones – even when he was in his rebellious phase he didn't go around fucking any and every attractive thing that caught his eye.

That redhead however... The buzzing of his cellphone jarred Byakuya out of his thoughts making him pause then fish it out of his pocket. He glanced at the number which was his sister's.

There were certain instances in which Rukia made it blatantly obvious that she wanted to avoid him, like earlier today, then there were times in which she was too clingy. It might have been Byakuya's fault for distancing himself from her growing up. Their grandfather bestowed so many things upon Byakuya as he was trying to protect Rukia so taking everything on himself ultimately led him to rebel against his family. The silver lining of his rebelling was that he and Rukia were closer than ever before. But whatever, no use dwelling on the past.

Byakuya pressed the talk button picking up the phone. "Moshi moshi?"

"_Moshi moshi aniki." _There was some static on the other line that made the nineteen-year-old's eyebrows furrow. _"Where are you?"_

"Heading toward the kissing booth."

"_Now?"_ More static was heard as Byakuya answered the affirmative. _"Before you do that do you think we can head to the goldfish booth together?"_

Well that was a surprise. Rukia rarely took the initiative when she wanted to hang out – she usually just hinted things making Byakuya have the first move but this was a nice change of pace. "Sure, I'd like that."

"_Great. I'll meet you over there, okay? In like five minutes or so."_

"I'm halfway across the cultural festival so I'll need more than five minutes."

"_Right... then call me when you get there, okay?"_

"Okay." The nineteen-year-old hung up his cell making an about face. With the human traffic polluting the surrounding area it might take thirty minutes at the most to navigate his way to the goldfish booth without a scratch.

— — —

Hanatarō sighed, in the midst of the confusion with the picture taking and the series of personal questions he managed to get lost. Unfortunately for him the person who found him scouted him to join the maid cafe as one of their maids. When he tried to explain to the scary woman that he was a male she either didn't believe him or didn't care because she put him in a female maid costume then put him to work.

The black-haired teen slowly approached his next table nearly dropping the tray under his arm. As if things couldn't possibly get any worse at the table sat Jaegerjaquez Grimmjow, Abarai Renji and some barely conscious redhead face down on the table cloth.

"Well, well, well..." Grimmjow began, "fancy meeting you here." Smirking, the blue-haired teen played with his phone looking the short teen up and down. "Working hard, are we? That's good."

Hanatarō nodded instinctively edging closer to Renji as he was the lesser of the two evils; generally, he had no problem with the redhead but he was often in the company of Grimmjow (like in the case of right now) so he had no choice but to steer clear of him. But as Renji was far less perverted and had the slight height and muscular advantage Hanatarō felt safer just being near him and the teen he had yet to identify.

"Why are you inching away?" Grimmjow asked leaning over the table making Hanatarō reflexively step backward moving closer to Renji.

"I'm thinking he's afraid of you." The redhead leaned back looking at the upside down Hanatarō smiling. "Don't worry, his bark's worse than his bite but if you're really afraid I'll protect ya."

"Forget that, I'd be more afraid of Starrk than me. He's dead set on claiming your ass you know." Hanatarō gulped. "Spoke to him earlier and he wouldn't shut up about how cute you looked in your little yukata."

"Where did they stash it?" Renji asked.

"I-Its in the back."

"I wanna see it." Grimmjow hissed as Renji kicked him from under the table. "Damn! Ah! Beansprout, you're a student here. Know where the infirmary is? Our little friend over there got shitfaced and we're dragging him around looking for it. After we eat of course."

"T-The infirmary is its own building on the far edge of the festival. Its located near the main entrance of the campus." Renji and Grimmjow exchanged glances before looking back at Hanatarō. "Umm... you leave here and make a left then keep going until you see the small white building." They continued to stare. "Maybe I should get someone to take you."

"That's a great idea!" Grimmjow said leaning forward grabbing Hanatarō's hand. "How kind of you to volunteer."

"N-No! I didn't—"

The redhead chose that moment to surface his head from the table top. "I feel sick." As if in slow motion Renji, Grimmjow and Hanatarō all turned to him as his cheeks puffed up and he vomited all over the edge of the table, himself and the floor.

The patrons of the maid cafe around their table gasped and groaned, a few of them held their stomachs and some took pictures. Unable to see anything past the table top, Renji couldn't help but laugh at the display; Grimmjow on the other hand was getting a crystal clear view seeing _everything_ the redhead was expelling from his mouth. The blue-haired teen held his legs against his body on his chair avoiding the never-ending stream of no longer identifiable goo falling from the redhead's open mouth.

Despite his cast iron stomach, Grimmjow had to clamp a hand over his mouth feeling the wave of nausea approaching at first hand witnessing someone throw up _violently_ in front of him. Normally, whenever one of his friends (i.e. Yumichika, Shūhei or even Shinji) got drunk or sick then puked he was either holding their hair back (which was specifically a Yumichika only request) or leaning against the wall ready to give his assistance. He never saw what came out of their mouths especially at such a close distance.

"Dude!" Renji exclaimed staring at the teen who's face was resembling his eccentric, albeit natural hair color. "Tell me you're not one of those people that can just throw up watching someone else do it are you? I can't carry both of you, you know!" Still holding his mouth, Grimmjow shook his head immediately regretting the action that only added more nausea.

Finally, the stream ebbed and the redhead leaned back passing out in his chair. Maids from every corner of the establishment, safe for the frozen Hanatarō, appeared in the blink of an eye hastily cleaning up the mess. Apparently, they took their roles in this festival very seriously.

"Sir." A silver-haired woman appeared from behind Hanatarō who looked up wide eyed. She clearly not only dwarfed Hanatarō but everyone else standing in the entire establishment. Whoever this person was, she was clearly the top dog as she had a name tag that read _'Kotetsu – maid manager.' _"I believe that it would be in everyone's best interest if your party would leave." She glanced at Hanatarō who gulped. "That would include you Yamada-kun."

"Huh?"

"Hold on." Renji stood up from his seat noticing he was taller but just barely; if he had to guess he'd say it wasn't even a full centimeter difference in their height. "We were just talking to him, there's no reason to kick him out too."

"I'm sorry but that's how these things are. One of your ...associates has passed out after he ruined the cafe and the other looks as though he will further defile our carpets."

"Kotetsu-sama its not coming out!" One of the maids whined as she scrubbed the carpet.

Gray eyes turned to the girl before looking back at Renji. "You should be grateful I'm only making you leave and not tell you to clean up."

Renji tilted his head holding his ground. "I ain't the type of guy to hit a woman without a reason no matter how badly she's asking for it. I didn't let him drink, but at the same time I'm not gonna start a pointless fight so I'll leave. Lets go Hanatarō." The black-haired teen nodded dashing to the back gathering his belongings.

When he returned, he saw Renji easily scooping up the other teen and Grimmjow in each of his hands exiting the cafe. Avoiding any kind of contact with the silver-haired teen, Hanatarō ran after him.

"Thought you said you couldn't carry both of us?" Grimmjow said allowing himself to be partially dragged to an outdoor table where he was deposited. "Anyways, you could have taken that bitch..." He slurred rubbing his head.

"Look, I wasn't gonna hit her – I don't know. Maybe, I was ...but not unless she hit me."

"Yeah, I know about your stupid chivalry shit. _'I can't hit a woman first_' – but its surprising you'd hit a woman at all."

"That chick was in drag and it was only once. I'm not gonna discriminate or get my ass kicked by a woman _because_ she's a woman."

"There is something seriously wrong with your logic my friend. We used to spar with a girl all the time, you hit her first no problem."

"That's irrelevant." Renji sighed, "back to the matter at hand. Are you alright? Can't remember the last time I saw you so green? That crazy ass roller coaster with like seven loops didn't make you look this bad."

"There was no end to it man." Grimmjow groaned glancing to his left where the redhead's unconscious body sat. "I still feel like shit though; want me to go back in there and fuck their shit up?"

"If you can stand."

"Um..." Grimmjow sat up slightly and Renji turned around to Hanatarō. "I guess I can take you to the infirmary now. H-Here's some water Jaegerjaquez-san."

"Thanks." Hanatarō slowly walked over to Grimmjow shakily giving him the water bottle. It wasn't too bad being close to him as the blue-haired teen was in a weakened state. After finishing his water, Grimmjow turned to him. "You should really change out of that outfit to stave off any unwanted attention."

Hanatarō looked down blushing. "I-I'll do that when we get to the infirmary."

Renji glanced at Hanatarō frowning. "I'd hate to ask this but can you help Grimmjow out? He might be a bit woozy and whatever." Hanatarō gaped at him and Renji rubbed the back of his neck. "I'll buy you lunch?"

Renji put the redhead's body piggy back style on him and Hanatarō helped Grimmjow up standing beside him yet not too close. "F-Follow me."

It took a while, but Hanatarō led them to the infirmary where a black-haired woman was seated. Her hair was braided in a ponytail in front of her, going into her shirt. "Oh my, what seems to be the problem?"

"I don't even know." Grimmjow groaned.

"Okay, why don't you go sit on the bed and I'll deal with this guy." Hanatarō helped Grimmjow get into the bed. The nurse led Renji to the bed beside Grimmjow's where he deposited the unconscious teen.

"I can smell the alcohol pouring out of his body. I wonder how much he could have ingested for this to happen. Its remarkable." The woman cleared her throat. "He just needs a good night's rest and maybe some headache medicine when he wakes up." She turned to Grimmjow, "you on the other hand need an antiemetic." Grimmjow stared at her. "Nausea medication? I have some in the back." She walked off.

"I-I guess I'll be going now."

"Wait!" Gulping, Hanatarō turned to Grimmjow. "Thanks." Blushing slightly, he nodded before leaving.

"Should I get going too?" Grimmjow glared at him. "Kidding, kidding. I don't get it man... you've survived prison, stepped on a bed of nails, jumped out of a three story building – action movie style – surviving with minimal injuries, did one of those fire swallowing tricks, drank gasoline and to top it all off you dealt with Hirako's crazy ass on a daily basis for three whole years in junior high. How could you get so ...bitchy watching vomit?"

"You didn't see what I saw man. I think I'm scarred for life."

Renji grimaced. He was too busy laughing to actually pay attention, plus the table luckily blocked his line of sight. If it was enough to have a thoroughbred, regulation badass like Grimmjow squirm like a little bitch it must have been quite the graphic scene. Renji would have felt sorry for him but there were countless times in which the slightly older teen was a completely insensitive douche regarding the pain of others so this was his just desserts.

Still, Renji wasn't as heartless as Grimmjow so he did _slightly_ feel sorry for his best friend. "Want me to bring you back something?"

"Fuck that, I have the furthest thing from an appetite right now." Grimmjow sat up, "you're hungry?"

"Yeah... I'm gonna get some food. I'll bring you back something savable for another day." Grimmjow's eyes narrowed. "Come on man, you can't deprive me of eating because _you_ feel sick. Its inhuman."

"No man, your appetite is inhuman." Grimmjow waved him off, "go. Just make sure to bring your ass back here."

"Will do." As Renji was making his way to leave the door opened. A very tall brunet walked into the room. Renji looked up at him forcing a smile.

The brunet nodded back at him walking forward. He stopped at the bed hoisting the redhead over his shoulders. "Did you take care of him?" He asked Grimmjow.

"Uh... sort of. We brought him here, he got himself drunk."

"Thank you."

"Oh!" The nurse returned with an ice pack and an unmarked bottle. "Sado-kun, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"I'm just taking Ichigo back, Unohana-sensei. Sorry for the trouble he's cost you – all of you." And with that he walked out of the infirmary.

Renji and Grimmjow exchanged glances. "What the fuck was that?" Renji shook his head shrugging.

"Okay." The nurse deposited a warm cloth on Grimmjow's face forcing him to lean back. "He's going to need to rest for a while, if he doesn't feel any better I'll give him the antiemetic."

Renji nodded. "I'm a man of my word, I promise you I'll be back dude." Grimmjow gave him the two fingered salute and Renji went on his way.

In the midst of his aimless walking and food eating he saw the kissing booth again. This time the line wasn't as long so he decided now was as good a chance as any to donate his lips to a good cause. "Next." Renji blinked as he realized that he was the next person in question. Chocolate eyes widened instantly recognizing the same gray-eyed teen from earlier whose sister he accidentally bumped into – or was it the other way around?

Anyway, the face was unmistakable and if he was that unhappy manning the booth Renji would be more than willing to change his perspective. Striding forward, he put his money into the jar now labeled _'Kissing Booth Funds __**Only**__ – Pay Or Go The Fuck Away!'_

The teen looked up and some kind of emotion flashed in his eyes briefly before Renji leaned forward pressing his lips against the stunned black-haired teen's.

Renji only had a few seconds to explore the shorter teen's warm orifice before he was violently pulled away by his collar and dragged off. "W-What the hell?" He looked up at Shūhei still holding his collar. "What happened?"

"Sorry to interrupt." He cleared his throat, "but I got a text from Chi, apparently he got his leg caught on a fence and is in the infirmary now. I think some girls tried to chase him down after taking his picture for the website."

Renji sighed looking back at the gray-eyed teen staring back at him licking his lips. Renji smirked waving at him just as they turned the corner.

Once the redhead was out of sight, the black-haired teen grabbed the jar and tore the sign off the booth before walking off. After getting a kiss like that it made little sense to get more. He stared at the jar, glancing at his slightly flushed reflection. Attempting to calm himself he silently counted in his head. He stared at the goldfish in their bowls swimming next to the jar and sighed. If a kiss that brief could leave him this frazzled he couldn't fathom what a longer one would do to him.


End file.
